The Monaco E-Prix has officially commenced and with Free Practice 1 complete, it’s quickly becoming clear who might be a strong contender this weekend. A relatively tame first session ends with a Mahindra driver leading the charge.
Practice is Essential
This weekend, getting a good amount of track time is vital. With the narrow streets and tight turns, the Monaco street circuit is not easy to master. The 20 drivers wasted no time this morning getting straight to the action. Envision driver Joel Eriksson is the only person on the current grid who is completely new to this circuit. For him, practice will be vital.
He wasted no time in this first session, heading straight out and completing a lot of miles. His work didn’t go unrewarded. Towards the end of FP1, he was running fourth fastest, and crossed the chequered flag in 14th position. While it seems a defeat from a glance, it shows that he is quickly mastering the track. At this level of progress, the Envision driver will be competing for the points.
His teammate Sebastian Buemi is no stranger to victory at this circuit. The three-time Monaco E-Prix winner took to the track today showing his experience. His session was about getting back into in, rather than hauling a large number of laps. The Swiss driver finished P11.
Mastering the Narrow Street is No Easy Job
Some sort of contact is almost inevitable in Monaco. The room for error is almost zero and even the slightest mistake can end your session completely. In FP1, it was reigning world champion Oliver Rowland who had a hair-raising incident. The Nissan driver suffered a lock-up into turn 1, narrowly making it to the run-off area.
He was lucky to escape any damage to the car, but the double yellow flags were still brought out in that section of the circuit. Rowland was able to spin his car around, rejoining the session before heading back to the pit lane. Other instances of oversteer and lock-ups happened across the grid, as they all get used to the layout of the track. Luckily, no major events happened in this session.
Mahindra lead the way
The 2021 world champion Nyck De Vries left FP1 the man to beat, with a time of 1:17.050. About three tenths behind him was the Porsche of Pascal Wehrlein, with Cupra Kiro driver Dan Ticktum rounding out the top three. De Vries has had great success at this circuit before, achieving P2 at last year’s E-Prix. He will hope to reach that top step this weekend.
Mahindra teammate Edoardo Mortara came home 4th fastest in the first session. The team overall look incredibly strong around the circuit, being among the favourites to take victory this weekend.