Mitch Evans set the pace in the opening practice session for the Monaco E-Prix as Jaguar-powered cars swept the top-three positions.
His best time of 1m30.414 was 0.299s quicker than Envision Racing’s Robin Frijns, with his Jaguar TCS Racing teammate Nick Cassidy a further 0.393s back in third. NEOM McLaren’s Jake Hughes was fourth, ahead of Andretti driver Jake Dennis, the top-five covered by just over a second.
TAG Heuer Porsche driver Antonio Felix da Costa was unhappy with the balance of his car in the session and wound up sixth, 0.043s off Dennis. Behind him was the Mahindra pairing of Edoardo Mortara and Nyck de Vries, with Andretti’s Norman Nato and Sebastien Buemi in the second Envision rounding out the top-10.
Maximilian Guenther finished the session in 11th for the Monaco-based Maserati MSG Racing team, ahead of series champions Lucas de Grassi (Abt Cupra) and Stoffel Vandoorne (DS Penske), with Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche) and Dan Ticktum (ERT) 14th and 15th respectively.
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Misano Race 1 winner Oliver Rowland was 16th quickest, despite a spin at the Grand Hotel Hairpin in the final minute of the session. The Nissan driver finished ahead of Nico Mueller in the second Abt Cupra entry, Jean-Eric Vergne int he other DS Penske, teammate Sacha Fenestraz, and Maserati driver Jehan Daruvala.
McLaren’s Sam Bird finished the session 21st after going into the barriers at Sainte Devote in the final 10 minutes following a lockup of his right-front tire. The incident didn’t bring out a red flag, although there was one halfway through the session after an advertising hoarding was pulled onto the track on the run down to Mirabeu.
ERT driver Sergio Sette Camara completed the field, albeit more than 11 seconds off the pace.