Mitch Evans sets pace in GP3's first Monaco practice session
Mitch Evans topped free practice on the debut appearance of the GP3 series at Monaco, setting a stunning pace in what proved to be the dying seconds of the session
The MW Arden driver looked set to miss out on top spot to Carlin's Antonio Felix da Costa after heading the timesheets during the middle stages of the 40-minute session.
But Evans repeatedly set fastest times in the middle sector, eventually stringing together a lap which was a remarkable seven-tenths of a second better than the Portuguese. He ended up setting fastest times overall in both the second and third sectors, showing that his place on top of the times was no fluke.
Evans set his time with three minutes to go just before red flags brought proceedings to a premature end when Carlin driver Will Buller spun entering Casino Square. Buller kept the car out of the barriers, but didn't have enough space to recover and had to rely on the marshals to recover him.
With Evans the only driver to break the 1m29s barrier, da Costa held onto second place ahead of Lotus driver Conor Daly. His team-mate Aaro Vainio, quickest overall in sector one, was fourth fastest.
Sometime GP2 driver Kevin Ceccon (Ocean) ended up fifth, just ahead of Alex Brundle (Carlin), the son of ex-grand prix driver Martin Brundle.
Despite the fact that the vast majority of the 26-car field were Monaco rookies, there were few incidents other than Buller's.
Manor Racing driver Dmitry Suranovich spun at Rascasse with five minutes to go, triggering a yellow flag that forced several drivers to abandon their laps, but beyond that it was an impressively clean session.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Mitch Evans MW Arden 1m28.492s 2. Antonio Felix da Costa Carlin 1m29.207s + 0.715s 3. Conor Daly Lotus 1m29.289s + 0.797s 4. Aaro Vainio Lotus 1m29.442s + 0.950s 5. Kevin Ceccon Ocean 1m29.648s + 1.156s 6. Alex Brundle Carlin 1m29.730s + 1.238s 7. David Fumanelli MW Arden 1m29.876s + 1.384s 8. Daniel Abt Lotus 1m29.953s + 1.461s 9. Matias Laine MW Arden 1m29.991s + 1.499s 10. Marlon Stockinger Status 1m29.994s + 1.502s 11. Patric Niederhauser Jenzer 1m30.267s + 1.775s 12. Tio Ellinas Manor 1m30.394s + 1.902s 13. Tamas Pal Kiss Atech CRS 1m30.424s + 1.932s 14. William Buller Carlin 1m30.534s + 2.042s 15. Robert Visoiu Jenzer 1m30.581s + 2.089s 16. Kotaro Sakurai Status 1m30.927s + 2.435s 17. Alice Powell Status 1m31.429s + 2.937s 18. Dmitry Suranovich Manor 1m31.460s + 2.968s 19. Jakub Klasterka Jenzer 1m31.524s + 3.032s 20. Antonio Spavone Trident 1m32.074s + 3.582s 21. Vicky Piria Trident 1m32.265s + 3.773s 22. Robert Cregan Ocean 1m32.285s + 3.793s 23. John Wartique Atech CRS 1m32.405s + 3.913s 24. Ethan Ringel Atech CRS 1m32.460s + 3.968s 25. Fabiano Machado Manor 1m32.886s + 4.394s 26. Carmen Jorda Ocean 1m34.583s + 6.091s
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