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Practice report

Monaco GP2: Sirotkin tops practice as Ste Devote claims three cars

ART Grand Prix driver Sergey Sirotkin set the quickest time in GP2 practice in Monaco as Ste Devote claimed three cars in the early stages of the session.

Sergey Sirotkin, ART Grand Prix

Sergey Sirotkin, ART Grand Prix

GP2 Media Service

Sergey Sirotkin, ART Grand Prix
Sergey Sirotkin, ART Grand Prix
Norman Nato, Racing Engineering
Norman Nato, Racing Engineering
Jordan King, Racing Engineering
Oliver Rowland, MP Motorsport

The 45-minute session kicked off five minutes past the scheduled time, due to repairs on the drain cover that was dislodged by Nico Rosberg and then hit by Jenson Button during the Formula 1 FP1 session.

The early pace in GP2's first run of the track this year was set by Norman Nato with a 1m21.788s, albeit he would shortly be surpassed by Sirotkin by 0.03s.

Pierre Gasly then went quickest by eight tenths, visibly on edge throughout his lap as the right side of his car rubbed against the barriers at the Anthony Noghes corner.

Having crossed the line with a new benchmark, he continued to push and went wide at Ste Devote, hitting the outside wall, which ripped his Prema Dallara GP2/11 machine's left rear wheel clean off.

And it was no sooner than the marshals had finished removing Gasly's car from the track that ART Grand Prix driver Nobuharu Matsushita locked up at Ste Devote, going nosecone-first into the barriers.

When the green flag waved again, Sirotkin set the new benchmark at 1m20.837s in what would prove to be a brief interlude before another Turn 1 crash, MP Motorsport's Daniel de Jong oversteering into the barrier.

Jordan King posted the new quickest time as the session restarted again and, while Sirotkin returned to the top spot with 10 minutes remaining, he had reportedly done so by straightlining the Nouvelle Chicane - something he then definitely did on his next flyer.

Nato came up less than a tenth short in his lap to claim second, with Alex Lynn a close third for DAMS.

Arthur Pic was fourth, leading King, Campos Racing's Mitch Evans and Gasly, who only fell as low as seventh despite his early crash.

Russian Time teammates Raffaele Marciello and Artem Markelov took eighth and 10th, split by Oliver Rowland.

Fittingly, the hectic session was concluded by a traffic jam during post-chequered practice starts as Sean Gelael stalled his car.

Practice results

Pos. Driver Team Time Gap
1 Sergey Sirotkin ART Grand Prix 1:20.361  
2 Norman Nato Racing Engineering 1:20.440 0.079
3 Alex Lynn DAMS 1:20.471 0.110
4 Arthur Pic Rapax 1:20.666 0.305
5 Jordan King Racing Engineering 1:20.735 0.374
6 Mitch Evans Pertamina Campos Racing 1:20.825 0.464
7 Pierre Gasly PREMA Racing 1:20.959 0.598
8 Raffaele Marciello Russian Time 1:21.001 0.640
9 Oliver Rowland MP Motorsport 1:21.039 0.678
10 Artem Markelov Russian Time 1:21.221 0.860
11 Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1:21.424 1.063
12 Sergio Canamasas Carlin 1:21.483 1.122
13 Luca Ghiotto Trident 1:21.652 1.291
14 Sean Gelael Pertamina Campos Racing 1:21.954 1.593
15 Antonio Giovinazzi PREMA Racing 1:22.023 1.662
16  Marvin Kirchhofer Carlin 1:22.212 1.851
17 Gustav Malja Rapax 1:22.392 2.031
18 Daniel de Jong MP Motorsport 1:22.473 2.112
19 Nabil Jeffri Arden International 1:23.210 2.849
20 Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:23.867 3.506
21 Jimmy Eriksson Arden International 1:23.979 3.618
22 Philo Paz Armand Trident 1:24.024 3.663

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