French driver Norman Nato led his teammate Carlos Sainz in the Thursday practice session ahead of the Formula Renault 3.5 race at Monte Carlo.
Nato was just four hundredths of a second ahead of the Spaniard in what was a DAMS-dominated practice run, as none of the other teams’ cars managed to crack 1:25s.
Sainz, who took sixth on his WSR debut at the track last year, led much of the session but found himself settling for second.
ISR’s sole racer Jazeman Jaafar took third with Monte having been the stage of his sole 3.5 podium thus far.
Sergey Sirotkin led Pietro Fantin by 0.004s in fourth, with Zoel Amberg close behind in sixth.
Oliver Rowland was the final driver to clock in within a second of Nato in seventh. The top ten was rounded out by Will Buller, Marco Sorensen and Matthieu Vaxiviere.
The session was not without incident as many drivers made their debut at the famously challenging track. Halfway through, Luca Ghiotto brought out the red flag at St. Devote, while there was yet another stoppage later on with five minutes to go.
Session results
Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
1 | Norman Nato | DAMS | 1:24.649 | 19 | |
2 | Carlos Sainz | DAMS | 1:24.689 | 0.040 | 22 |
3 | Jazeman Jaafar | ISR | 1:25.262 | 0.613 | 19 |
4 | Sergey Sirotkin | Fortec Motorsports | 1:25.365 | 0.716 | 25 |
5 | Pietro Fantin | International Draco Racing | 1:25.369 | 0.720 | 21 |
6 | Zoel Amberg | AVF | 1:25.390 | 0.741 | 22 |
7 | Oliver Rowland | Fortec Motorsports | 1:25.489 | 0.840 | 25 |
8 | William Buller | Arden Motorsport | 1:25.890 | 1.241 | 23 |
9 | Marco Sorensen | Tech 1 Racing | 1:26.228 | 1.579 | 18 |
10 | Matthieu Vaxiviere | Lotus | 1:26.251 | 1.602 | 22 |
11 | Matias Laine | Strakka Racing | 1:26.271 | 1.622 | 22 |
12 | Marlon Stockinger | Lotus | 1:26.495 | 1.846 | 20 |
13 | Pierre Gasly | Arden Motorsport | 1:26.558 | 1.909 | 23 |
14 | Will Stevens | Strakka Racing | 1:26.653 | 2.004 | 25 |
15 | Roberto Merhi | Zeta Corse | 1:26.950 | 2.301 | 22 |
16 | Roman Mavlanov | Zeta Corse | 1:27.489 | 2.840 | 21 |
17 | Beitske Visser | AVF | 1:27.492 | 2.843 | 21 |
18 | Oliver Webb | Pons Racing | 1:27.528 | 2.879 | 19 |
19 | Meindert van Buuren | Pons Racing | 1:28.781 | 4.132 | 20 |
20 | Luca Ghiotto | International Draco Racing | 1:28.933 | 4.284 | 11 |
21 | Andrea Roda | Comtec Racing | 1:35.486 | 10.837 | 12 |