Martins fastest by big margin in F2’s Monaco practice session

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins was fastest by a sizeable 0.616 seconds in Formula 2’s practice session in Monaco.

At the start of the session, the whole field headed out then went back into the pits briefly. The first laptimes appeared seven minutes in, then after 10 minutes points leader Alex Dunne posted one of the first laps at a representative pace.

His 1m25.666s was considerably faster tha anyone else could manage, and he initially had a 0.821-second gap at the top.

Joshua Duerksen (AIX Racing), Martins, Jak Crawford (DAMS) and then Gabriele Mini (Prema) reduced it, with the last of those getting within 0.109s of Dunne.

Sebastian Montoya (Prema) demoted Duerksen to sixth, then was beaten by Amaury Cordeel (Rodin Motorsport) and Richard Verschoor (MP Motorsport), who went third fastest by breaking into the 1m25s.

Dunne failed to improve, and Trident’s Sami Meguetounif lapped just 0.078s shy of Dunne’s benchmark.

A few minutes later Crawford set a 1m24.193s to go fastest, leading Duerksen and Dunne before Martins moved ahead with a 1m24.014s.

Montoya, Mini and then Cordeel occupied fourth as the 15-minute mark approached, and Verschoor was fifth fastest following that.

Martins lowered the pace to 1m23.23s two minutes on, with Crawford and Luke Browning (Hitech GP) both setting 1m23.903s. Mini also broke the 1m24s barrier, but once again lost fourth to Cordeel shortly after.

Rodin driver Dunne finally found more pace again and 19 minutes in posted a 1m23.648s to become Martins’ closest rival. He improved by 0.038s on his next lap, as Meguetounif set a 1m23.798s in third Cordeel and Verschoor both recorded 1m23.903s laptimes in sixth and seventh.

A 1m22.623s from Martins grew his advantage back to 0.987s, which Browning swiftly cut to 0.777s as the session’s halfway point approached.

Dunne got within 0.516s of Martins two laps later, as Cordeel improved to 1m23.857s in fifth before ending his first run.

The second runs on supersoft tyres were devoid of improvements, but there were two moments of drama: a spin for Invicta Racing’s Leonardo Fornaroli and a turn one crash for Cordeel that brought out red flags.

Six-and-a-half minutes remained following the restart, and with two minutes to go Dunne lapped 0.325s off Martins’ benchmark. Roman Stanek set a 1m23.136s to jump to third, and Fornaroli improved in sixth.

Browning came 0.184s shy of Martins with one minute-and-40 seconds left of practice, and team-mate Dino Beganovic rose to fifth.

A second before the chequered flag waved, Mini toppled Martins with a 1m22.48s as the track was at its grippiest.

Verschoor went third with a 1m22.802s, Martins took back first place with a 1m21.715s, and had a 0.753s gap as Fornaroli slotted into second. Browning then beat him, but was way off Martins, as the top seven completed by Beganovic, Verschoor and Campos Racing’s Arvid Lindblad all improved. Dunne pitted early and ended practice in eighth.

Free practice results