After a short one-hour break, action was back on track to life at 2:30pm with the D-Series, featuring Grand Prix cars from 1966 to 1972. In this class, the public couldn’t miss the Lotus 49B driven by Adrian Newey! The 65-year-old British engineer, who will be leaving the Red Bull Racing team at the end of the year, put in a good showing in the middle of this wild field, finishing in 8th place. Building on his success of two years ago, Michael Lyons set a blistering pace at the wheel of a 1971 Surtees TS9, completing the 3.337km-track 2 seconds faster than his closest rival, Katsuaki Kubota driving Lotus 72. A decent warm-up for the Briton, who won three times in the Principality in 2021, as he will also be lining up in the E-, F- and G-Series!

This first day of the 14th Grand Prix de Monaco Historique also trapped drivers in the E-Series, which brings together Grand Prix cars from 1973 to 1976. On the winding Avenue d’Ostende, just a few minutes after the start of this unique free practice session, the Tyrrell 007 of Roald Goethe and the Shadow DN5 of Marco Bianchini collided, causing the 3rd red flag of the day to allow the intervention of the Automobile Club de Monaco’s track Marshals, who are always very efficient! Extended by 3 minutes, the session was finally dominated by the event’s regulars, who put their experience to good use. Marco Werner and his Lotus 76 were the fastest, ahead of Michael Lyons (McLaren M26) and Nicholas Padmore (Lotus 77). Among the 24 entries in the series, Monaco was proudly represented by Frédéric Lajoux (Surtees TS19) in 10th place!

There were plenty of people in the grandstands and on the track for the 6th session of the day! And with good reason, the C-Series is the most crowded, with 38 competitors authorised to race at the Grand Prix de Monaco Historique. They all made the most of free practice to get to grips with the Principality’s legendary track without making any unforgivable mistakes. Even among the front-engined sports cars from 1952 to 1957, Lotus shone, thanks to Max Smith-Hilliard! The Briton drove his beautiful MK X to the top of the timesheets, overtaking Gregor Fisken’s Jaguar HWM and Richard Wilson’s Maserati 250S.

In the F-Series, named after Gilles Villeneuve and featuring F1 cars from 1977 to 1981, Michael Lyons again dominated proceedings! This time at the wheel of a Hesketh 308E bearing the number 24, the defending champion of the category displayed all his talent to get his weekend off to a perfect start. Several drivers were caught out, including Sam Hancock (Fittipaldi F6A) and Monegasque Nicolas Matile (March 771), who faulted at Sainte-Dévote and in the S de la Piscine. Interrupted by a red flag, the session resumed to give the competitors the opportunity to make one last attempt before tomorrow’s qualifying session.

Day one came to a close with the G-Series, whose name Ayrton Senna will echo throughout the weekend. 28 drivers took to the track shortly after 6pm for 30-minute free practice session. Overexcited by the idea of shining in the Principality, some of them were carried away by their enthusiasm and brought back to reality: the Circuit de Monaco is not a playground to be taken carelessly. Race HQ decided to wave the red flag twice to interrupt the session. The superb Ligier JS21, driven by Soheil Ayari who is a rookie in this event, was the last to go off at La Rascasse. Fortunately, no damage was done, much to the delight of the spectators who will see this fantastic car again on Saturday!