FP2 of the Monaco E-Prix followed a slippery and eventful opening practice session, where Mahindra’s Nyck de Vries set the benchmark with a late 1:27.050.
Drivers had struggled for grip throughout FP1 as they adapted to the full Monaco layout ahead of Round 9 and the return of the Pit Boost format. Sébastien Buemi was among the first to report low track feeling, while Nico Müller initially led from António Félix da Costa and Jake Dennis.
Oliver Rowland brought out a yellow flag after locking up and spinning near Turn 1, while several drivers continued to fight the bumpy street circuit. Mitch Evans later moved to the top for Jaguar, before Felipe Drugovich briefly put Andretti fastest as lap times dropped into the 1:29s.
The pace improved sharply in the final minutes. De Vries led from Evans and Dennis with five minutes to go, while Jean-Éric Vergne and Evans both had moments at the chicane. Dan Ticktum then briefly went fastest for CUPRA KIRO in its special movie-themed livery.
With track evolution playing a key role, several drivers improved after the chequered flag. De Vries ultimately ended FP1 on top, ahead of Pascal Wehrlein and Ticktum.
Maloney crash interrupts early FP2 running of Monaco E-Prix
As the track went green all drivers apart from championship leader Wehrlein and Buemi went out for FP2 of the Monaco E-Prix. Though they shortly followed the pack, as they headed out to collect data ahead of the first qualifying of the weekend. With 30 minutes on the clock the drivers took over the streets of the Principality, where Müller was the first to set a time with a 1:35.097 putting his Porsche on top of the sheet for now and improved his time up to 1:29.845.
About eight minutes into FP2 for the Monaco E-Prix, race control deleted Da Costa’s lap time for track limits violations. The session was then cut short when Zane Maloney lost his brakes and hit the barriers at Turn 4, bringing out the red flag.
Final moments of the session
As usual, the clock continued to run during the red flag, leaving teams hoping marshals would remove Maloney’s car quickly, with the session itself lasting only 30 minutes. With Monaco being one of the tracks where the conditions changed quickly, every minute of FP2 would bring the teams valuable data ahead of qualifying later today. A qualifying that Maloney could miss as the team has only just about an hour after FP2 of the Monaco E-Prix.
FP2 went green again with about 15 minutes left on the clock, as race control deleted Taylor Barnard’s lap time for exceeding track limits at Turn 10. Barnard had his lap time deleted again for track limits as he went into the barriers in the tunnel, though he could continue into the pits, while De Vries topped the timesheets with a 1:26.872.
Mahindra leads the way as De Vries tops FP2 in Monaco
With about 8 minutes left on the clock Mahindra is topping the timesheets with De Vries and Edoardo Mortara sitting in P1 and P2 as Maximilian Günther finished the top 3. Meanwhile, Cassidy seemed to have a problem as he had problems with his car, being the only driver that stayed in the pits even though the Citroën driver only sat in P10. With 3 minutes left the Porsche-powered cars seemed to find some time as they put themselves from P4 to P9, with only Pepe Martí missing and Evans putting himself in between at P5.
As time ran out, race control deleted Cassidy’s lap time for exceeding track limits at Turn 10. With only a few seconds left on the clock, all running cars returned to the track before the chequered flag fell in FP2 of the Monaco E-Prix. De Vries again topped the practice session with a 1:26.664, followed by Mahindra teammate Mortara and Jaguar TCS Racing driver Evans.
Even though the chequered flag was out, race control put out yellow flags at turn 18,19 and 19.5 as several drivers used the time to train their practice starts.
