Day 1-
Victor Martins was in a class of one on the opening day of running in Monte Carlo, logging a 1:21.715 to lead the way for ART Grand Prix.
The Frenchman was the only driver in the 1:21s in Practice, as Luke Browning and Leonardo Fornaroli followed in second and third places for Hitech TGR and Invicta Racing respectively.
With the first round of laps on the board, Championship leader Alexander Dunne set the pace on 1:25.666 for Rodin Motorsport.
Sami Meguetounif settled into second less than a tenth behind in the #22 Trident, with Gabriele Mini third for PREMA with 10 minutes gone.
Jak Crawford and then Martins brought the time to beat down, the ART driver took over P1 with a 1:24.014. The Frenchman then improved to go six-tenths clear, putting in a 1:23.230 on his next attempt.
Martins continued to fly, with the Williams Racing Academy talent improving onto a 1:22.623, with fellow Williams junior Browning in P2.
There was a brief lull as drivers returned to the pitlane for a fresh set of tyres before the final 15 minute spell of on-track running.
With Supersoft tyres fitted, Mini looked set to go quickest but a Red Flag was thrown after Amaury Cordeel nosed his Rodin Motorsport car into the Turn 1 barriers.
He was out of the car and the Rodin was recovered , leaving seven minutes of Free Practice left to run as things went back to green flag conditions.
There were several late improvements, with Mini resuming from where he left off prior to the temporary stoppage as he went quickest of all.
That was until Martins completed his Supersoft lap to go 0.7s clear of the pack with the fastest time of time of the day.
Browning and Fornaroli found a late improvement to go second and third quickest, splitting Martins and dropping Mini to fourth.
Day 2-
The even numbered cars kicked off the first segment and with warm up laps completed, Martins picked up his pace immediately to put in a 1:21.792 for the top spot by over a second.
Arvid Lindblad cut that gap down to just under three-tenths on his first effort for Campos Racing, going to second.
Into the final five minutes and Lindblad became the first driver to displace Martins from the top spot, going to provisional pole momentarily until Richard Verschoor secured P1 with a 1:21.520.
Martins had to abandon his second attempt after cutting the Nouvelle Chicane, but he moved back to provisional pole after a cool down lap, setting a 1:21.145.
On to the final attempts, Martins couldn’t improve but he had done enough to retain the top sport in Group A, finishing up 0.375s ahead of Verschoor in P2.
With the target set, the odd numbered cars followed out of the pitlane, and just as the first flying laps were set to get underway, the red flags were waving.
Rafael Villagomez found the barriers at the final corner after a squabble for track position with Alexander Dunne.
Once the Van Amersfoort Racing car was recovered, the stewards confirmed the incident would be investigated after the session.
Preparation laps complete, Dunne set the pace with a 1:21.781 to go to P1 ahead of Leonardo Fornaroli of Invicta Racing.
As the session ticked into the final three minutes, the next set of laps arrived and the Championship leader improved onto a 1:21.437. Sebastian Montoya found more time also.
With less than a minute to go, Dunne found a session-best first and second sector time and a final sector good enough to set a 1:21.142.
Fornaroli improved to second position, but third placed driver Montoya spun to bring out the yellow flags in the final sector.
The full top 10 overall is- P1: Dunne, P2: Martins, P3: Fornaroli, P4: Verschoor, P5: Montoya, P6: Lindblad, P7: Crawford, P8: Mini, P9: Browning and P10: Maini.
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