Copyright GP2 Media Services
Campos Racing’s Arthur Pic was fastest in today’s GP2 practice session, lapping the narrow street circuit of Monaco two tenths of a seconds quicker than Alexander Rossi and rookie Pierre Gasly.
The practice session was interrupted soon after it began as Mitch Evans had to stop in Turn 2 with a mechanical issue, bringing out the first red flag of the weekend. After the track was cleared, the DAMS duo of Alex Lynn and Pierre Gasly were the first ones to finish their flying laps. The laptimes started to tumble down quickly in the early stage of the session as the drivers began to push and test the limits of the tricky street track. Eventually it was Alexander Rossi who settled down in the top spot 15 minutes into the session, being the first man to break the 1:23 minute barrier.
Yellow flags made their first appearance after a third of the session when Sergio Canamasas misjudged his way through the Ste. Devote chicane and ran wide into the run-off area. Shortly afterwards, Daniel de Jong became the second casualty of the practice session and stopped at Nouvelle Chicane with what appeared to be a mechanical problem, bringing out yellow flags again.
As the track was clear again, Status GP’s Richie Stanaway took his chance and claimed the top spot with a laptime over a second faster than the Rossi, where he would remain while many drivers returned to the pits halfway through the session. Stoffel Vandoorne’s flying lap brought the Belgian up to second place, one tenth of a second off Stanaway’s time. Rossi and Leal attempted to take the lead as well while the track was traffic-free, but while they were able to push Vandoorne back to fourth place, they were unable to beat the time of Stanaway.
However, some drivers found extra speed for the last stage of the session: Raffaele Marciello lapped the track five tenths faster than Stanaway and took the top spot from the Kiwi, and shortly afterwards Arthur Pic set the fastest laptime of the practice session with a 1:20.556. Gasly returned to P2 with a laptime three tenths of a second off the pace of the Frenchman before being pushed down to third place by Alexander Rossi. Vandoorne finished the session in fourth place ahead of Sergio Canamasas, and Marciello, Stanaway, Negrao, Haryanto, and Nato complete the top ten.
The qualifying takes place this afternoon at 16:15 CEST, split into two sessions of 15 minutes each. Drivers with odd numbers will take part in the first session, drivers with even numbers will take part in the second session.
