Practice report
Formula E Monaco ePrix
Monaco E-Prix: Da Costa fastest overall in Formula E practice
Antonio Felix da Costa set the quickest time across both Monaco E-Prix practice sessions, posting a 1m30.435s in FP2 as Nyck de Vries headed FP1.
Jake Boxall-Legge
Edited: Apr 30, 2022, 8:55 AM
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Last year's Monaco race winner Da Costa posted his time in the final eight minutes of the second practice session, following a red flag called for Mahindra's Alexander Sims as he pulled over at the entry of the Rascasse with a broken front-right steering arm.
Sims appeared to have an incident with Nissan e.dams' Sebastien Buemi which was placed under investigation by the stewards - but was not deemed worthy of any further action.
The British driver kicked off the opening flurry of laps with the initial fastest time, a 1m31.932s, but this was quickly bettered as the Mercedes duo of de Vries and Vandoorne swept to the top, with the former becoming the first driver to tap into the 1m30s.
After a brief yellow flag at the Swimming Pool section as Avalanche Andretti rookie Oliver Askew came to a stop, Robin Frijns then leaped into control at the top, logging a 1m30.678s despite a lock-up at the Nouvelle Chicane.
Championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne then followed him into second with just a tenth in arrears, although it appeared that Lucas di Grassi would leapfrog them both with a pair of fastest opening sectors before a Rascasse mistake neutered his assault on top spot.
Dan Ticktum then brought out a yellow flag at the first corner with a lock-up precipitating a dive into the Sainte Devote run-off, before Sims' incident produced the red flag.
With eight minutes left on the clock after the stranded Mahindra was cleared, da Costa charged to the top, with Mitch Evans going into second place behind him with a two-tenths deficit.
Mitch Evans, Jaguar Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 5
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
Vergne then looked set to make it a DS Techeetah 1-2 on the timing boards, but hit the wall on the exit of the Swimming Pool complex and had to immediately make a trip to the pitlane to assess the damage.
Evans tried to overturn da Costa's advantage at the death of the session, but got marginally held up by Pascal Wehrlein before going too deep into the Nouvelle Chicane to spoil his lap.
Frijns' earlier timesheet-topping lap was good enough for third, with Vergne classified fourth ahead of Maximilian Guenther.
De Vries ended FP2 in sixth, ahead of Porsche duo Wehrlein and Andre Lotterer, while Edoardo Mortara and Jake Dennis completed the top ten.
Earlier in the morning, de Vries had headed the first practice session with a 1m31.154s, which withstood a late charge from Nick Cassidy as the Envision driver locked up at the Rascasse on his final lap before the chequered flag.
Cassidy thus slotted into second, going 0.118s slower than the Mercedes driver's time - and beating Edoardo Mortara by just over three tenths. Da Costa was fourth fastest in that session, beating Buemi and Lotterer.
Formula E Monaco E-Prix - Practice results
FP2
Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap 1 Antonio Felix da Costa
Techeetah 14 1'30.435 2
Mitch Evans
Jaguar Racing 15 1'30.644 0.209 3
Robin Frijns
Virgin Racing 12 1'30.678 0.243 4
Jean-Eric Vergne
Techeetah 12 1'30.795 0.360 5
Maximilian Gunther
DAMS 14 1'30.825 0.390 6
Nyck de Vries
Mercedes 15 1'30.852 0.417 7
Pascal Wehrlein
Porsche Team 14 1'30.876 0.441 8
Andre Lotterer
Porsche Team 15 1'30.930 0.495 9
Edoardo Mortara
Venturi 15 1'30.979 0.544 10
Jake Dennis
Andretti Autosport 14 1'30.985 0.550 11
Stoffel Vandoorne
Mercedes 15 1'31.033 0.598 12
Lucas di Grassi
Venturi 15 1'31.039 0.604 13
Sam Bird
Jaguar Racing 15 1'31.092 0.657 14
Nick Cassidy
Virgin Racing 12 1'31.107 0.672 15
Sébastien Buemi
DAMS 13 1'31.247 0.812 16
Dan Ticktum
NIO Formula E Team 15 1'31.553 1.118 17
Oliver Turvey
NIO Formula E Team 15 1'31.759 1.324 18
Alexander Sims
Mahindra Racing 8 1'31.932 1.497 19
Oliver Rowland
Mahindra Racing 14 1'32.305 1.870 20
Sergio Sette Camara
Dragon Racing 13 1'32.621 2.186 21
Oliver Askew
Andretti Autosport 4 1'33.124 2.689 22
Antonio Giovinazzi
Dragon Racing 7 1'33.546 3.111 View full results
FP1
Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap 1 Nyck de Vries
Mercedes 17 1'31.154 2
Nick Cassidy
Virgin Racing 14 1'31.272 0.118 3
Edoardo Mortara
Venturi 16 1'31.611 0.457 4
Antonio Felix da Costa
Techeetah 15 1'31.653 0.499 5
Sébastien Buemi
DAMS 15 1'31.768 0.614 6
Andre Lotterer
Porsche Team 16 1'31.805 0.651 7
Sam Bird
Jaguar Racing 14 1'31.840 0.686 8
Jean-Eric Vergne
Techeetah 14 1'31.849 0.695 9
Jake Dennis
Andretti Autosport 15 1'31.856 0.702 10
Mitch Evans
Jaguar Racing 14 1'31.897 0.743 11
Maximilian Gunther
DAMS 15 1'31.984 0.830 12
Stoffel Vandoorne
Mercedes 16 1'31.994 0.840 13
Lucas di Grassi
Venturi 15 1'32.127 0.973 14
Oliver Rowland
Mahindra Racing 15 1'32.164 1.010 15
Dan Ticktum
NIO Formula E Team 17 1'32.273 1.119 16
Pascal Wehrlein
Porsche Team 16 1'32.417 1.263 17
Oliver Turvey
NIO Formula E Team 16 1'32.723 1.569 18
Oliver Askew
Andretti Autosport 16 1'32.832 1.678 19
Sergio Sette Camara
Dragon Racing 14 1'33.345 2.191 20
Robin Frijns
Virgin Racing 13 1'33.643 2.489 21
Antonio Giovinazzi
Dragon Racing 15 1'33.721 2.567 22
Alexander Sims
Mahindra Racing 16 1'34.595 3.441 View full results
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