Sergey Sirotkin leads the way in Monaco free-practice ahead of Norman Nato and Alex Lynn while Gasly, Matsushita and De Jong are taken down at Sainte Dévote.
Let’s remind six drivers make their debuts at Monaco this year: Luca Ghiotto, Marvin Kichhofer, Antonio Giovinazzi, Nabil Jeffri, Jimmy Eriksson
The first flying lap comes from Norman Nato, the winner of the first race of the season, with a 1:23.441 laptime on a track he already scored a victory on in Formula Renault 3.5 in 2014. Alex Lynn matched his pace quite easily, the only one managing to stay within the same second than the French driver.
The traffic is a real problem for most of drivers and meanwhile, Sergey Sirotkin set the fastest lap. Pierre Gasly, ten minutes in the session, set a stellar lap, 0.8s faster than Sirotkin just before hitting the wall at Sainte Dévote as the session was placed under virtual safety car.
Barely being back under green flag conditions, Nobuharu Matsuhita went straight into the wall at Sainte Dévote after a lock-up. Five minutes after the green flag was waved again, Daniël De Jong went off in the exact same way Matsushita did some moment ago.
Jordan King went faster in the session as it went green again, almost losing the rear in Sainte Dévote after his lap. Mitch Evans, after a difficult start of the season, went P3, just ahead of Gasly’s time, still P4 yet not being able to regain the track. With eight minutes to go, Norman Nato went P2.
Sergey Sirotkin led the way ahead of Norman Nato and Alex Lynn for the top 3. Arthur Pic, Jordan King, Mitch Evans, Pierre Gasly (yet stopped), Raffaele Marciello, Oliver Rowland and Artem Markelov complete the top 10.