Free Practice 3, Saturday at lunchtime, allowed Sergio Pérez to shine again, by stealing the best time from Charles Leclerc at the very end of the session, in order to come back to 2-1 in the provisional score of the weekend’s meetings between Scuderia Ferrari and Red Bull Racing. The Mexican achieved a super lap in 1:12.476, creating a 41/1000 gap on the Monegasque hero, credited a little earlier with a 1:12.517, following two Friday sessions that Leclerc had dominated from start to finish .

The leading quartet in this last rehearsal was completed by Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari, ahead of reigning world champion Max Verstappen in the other Red Bull, who probably saved a bit of energy for the qualifying session scheduled for 4 pm. This qualifying session promised to be hotter than ever: behind the two “top teams” of the moment a fair distribution happened between five other teams: Pierre Gasly 5th in his Alpha Tauri, Lando Norris 6th in his McLaren, and Lewis Hamilton in 7th place (7 as in his collection of world titles), in his Mercedes, on which some problems may have been solved since yesterday.

The Top 10 of this very last free practice session was completed by Kevin Magnussen (Haas) 8th, George Russell (Mercedes) 9th and Fernando Alonso (Alpine) 10th. So that Q1 and especially Q2 will probably be very intense, in order to determine the names of drivers allowed to chase pole in Q3. To be continued.

There were two mini-races of 5 minutes each, Saturday morning in Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA), interspersed with a red flag and a long pit stop. Each time, the Frenchman Hadrien David, who started from pole position, won, knowing that the second start was given behind the Safety Car, an all-white Alpine A110 road car. Since this is the Monaco Grand Prix, there was also a podium in front of the Prince’s box, on the finish line, with cups and personalities. David was joined there by young Swede Dino Beganovic, still well ahead at the top of the championship, and Dutchman Kas Haverkort, who was very happy to complete the Top 3.

The red flag was caused by a collision at the Fairmont hairpin, which was followed by a traffic jam of single-seaters, but the damage was not serious and almost all competitors were able to restart after 15 minutes in the pits. There will be a second FRECA race on Sunday morning, starting at 8.35am. Beganovic, the quickest on Friday in qualifications, will be in pole position, hoping for a similar result to David’s on Saturday.

Ferrari and Red Bull went blow for blow in Free Practice 2, just to end Friday on a positive note, with a slight psychological advantage. The leading quartet moved for an hour, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, for the Scuderia, Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez, for Red Bull Racing, ensuring a colorful spectacle, without sparing their efforts. At the end of this first street brawl, a perfect teaser for a fierce weekend, the local hero, Monegasque Charles Leclerc, finished at the top of the time sheet, same as in FP1 earlier in the afternoon, with a time of 1:12.656, just ahead of his Spanish teammate and both Red Bull drivers in an unusual order, with the Mexican ahead of the Dutchman.

Behind the four untouchables, the places of honor were also hotly contested, between five different teams: McLaren, with Lando Norris (5th) all alone following Daniel Ricciardo’s big crash at the Swimming Pool, which caused a red flag to be deployed for several minutes, Mercedes with George Russell (6th), AlphaTauri thanks to Pierre Gasly (7th), Alpine represented by Fernando Alonso (8th) and Aston Martin, with Sebastian Vettel (9th) in the Top 10. So that Saturday promises to be thrilling with a qualifying session where no expert can reasonably predict a detailed result. It will happen Saturday from 4 pm in the streets of Monaco. And it will be hot.

Photo : © Philippe Magoni

The reigning Porsche Supercup champion, Larry ten Voorde, is on track to do it again in the streets of Monaco: he set the fastest time in qualifying on Friday and will start from pole position on Sunday at noon, with the surprising Briton Harry King just behind him. A time of 1:34.500 was enough for the Dutchman in his orange and black Porsche to beat King and the best Frenchman in the Supercup, Dorian Boccolacci, 3rd in these qualifications and 3rd in the race last year for his Porsche Supercup debut in the streets of the Principality.

Victory should be decided on Sunday between these three drivers and the next three on the grid will be serious candidates for a podium position: German Laurin Heinrich (4th), who hit the safety barrier and caused a short-lived red flag, at the end of the session, Luxemburg’s Dylan Pereira (5th), who won last month at Imola, and another German, Michael Ammermüller (6th), winner here in Monaco in 2019.

After Heinrich’s soft touch on the wall, the Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM) marshals, as efficient as always, intervened very quickly and enabled this session to end in style, with ten Voorde’s best time and the 3rd one for Boccolacci. Very promising for Sunday, when the most awaited race of this historic season, that of the 30th anniversary of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup, will start at noon, for 17 laps (or 30 minutes maximum).

He is eagerly awaited this weekend and has every intention of making a faultless run until Sunday. It’s off to a good start, with the best time in Free Practice 1 on Friday afternoon for Charles Leclerc, in his Ferrari, in 1:14.531, with a tiny margin ahead of Sergio Pérez’s Red Bull (1:14.570) and on Carlos Sainz’s other Ferrari (1:14.601). A fourth driver fell below the 1:15 lap mark, world champion Max Verstappen, 4th fastest in this inaugural session where he tried to find the limit and went straight at Sainte-Dévote, without damaging his Red Bull carrying number 1.

The good surprise came from McLaren who set the 5th (Lando Norris) and 7th times (Daniel Ricciardo). Between the two drivers of the English team, the best Frenchman of this FP1, Pierre Gasly, took 6th in his AlphaTauri. Even if we cannot rely on a first session to draw hasty conclusions, it is already clear that the Scuderia has prepared this meeting in Monaco well and that Mercedes, despite obvious progress in recent weeks, is not yet back at the top of the F1 hierarchy: George Russell (8th) edged out Lewis Hamilton (10th) and another world champion, Sebastian Vettel (9th), pointed his Aston Martin’s nose in the Top 10.

The good news is that we won’t have to wait too long, only for Friday’s FP2 session at 5:00 pm, to find out if these trends are confirmed…

Formula 2 qualifying, late Friday morning, was very lively, as expected, and it is finally Felipe Drugovich (MP Motorsport), the championship leader, who will start on pole position for the Feature Race, Sunday morning at 9:50 a.m.

New Zealander Liam Lawson (Carlin Motorsport), son of Eddie, an ex-motorcycle world champion, had stolen pole position, from the Brazilian driver, in the last minutes of the first half-session, that of Group A: Drugovich had just set his best lap when he made a mistake at the Antony-Noghès corner, his car having to park at the start of the finishing straight, on the right, against the safety barriers. By the time the yellow flags were waved, Liam Lawson had gone through, setting a better time than him, with in his wake Ayumu Iwasa, the surprising Japanese from the DAMS team, 2nd in this session.

An investigation was then ordered and the conclusions fell at the end of the afternoon, the race marshals having listened to all parties involved. Lawson (5 places) and Iwasa (10 places) were penalized for not having slowed down enough under the yellow flags, and Drugovich therefore retained the benefit of his best lap (1:21.348), before hitting the safety barriers at the Antony-Noghes turn. Nothing changed for Théo Pourchaire (ART Grand Prix), best time in Group B (1:21.535), during a session definitively interrupted by a red flag, two minutes from the end, following a huge crash by Jake Hughes at the Swimming Pool. The Frenchman, who won here last year, will start alongside Drugovich on Sunday, with a good chance of winning twice in a row in Monaco.

The Feature Race (42 laps or 60 minutes), with Drugovich and Pourchaire on the front row, will start Sunday at 9:50 am. For the Sprint Race on Saturday at 5:40 pm (30 laps or 45 minutes), Hughes who will be in pole position, thanks to his 10th time in qualifying and the fact that the grid will be reversed for the Top 10. A lucky guy, after all.

Both pole positions for the Formula Regional by Alpine races are known: for Race 1, Saturday morning, Frenchman Hadrien David will have this honor after setting a time of 1:29.802 on Friday morning, in his last flying lap, just before the Group A checkered flag fell. A great performance for him, less than ten seconds behind the best times in Formula 2, at the wheel of a lighter but also much less powerful single-seater than a F2.

For Race 2, Sunday morning, this privilege will go to Swede Dino Beganovic, detached leader of the championship after two victories and two second places in the first four rounds of the year. He posted the best absolute time in qualifying on Friday: 1:29.429 , in Group B, four tenths better than David, with therefore a small option on a prestigious victory in the Principality on Sunday.

A member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, Beganovic, 18, was eagerly awaited, as was the Italian Gabriele Mini, who had set the fastest time in Thursday’s free practice. He achieved his best flying lap in the last five minutes of the session, after a red flag caused by a Chinese rookie going off the track.

Among the main favorites, Italian Gabriele Mini, 2nd in Group B, will start on the second row on Saturday and Sunday. However, these qualifications have dealt a big blow to the hopes of Estonian Paul Aron, a promising member of the Mercedes Junior Team. His front left suspension collapsed before he had time to set a decent time, at the very start of the Group A session. He will therefore start at the back of the grid with a huge challenge on his hands, in both races this weekend.

It was the last free practice session of a busy afternoon, for Formula 2, and it was very lively, the main agitators being the top drivers who scored big points in the first eight rounds of 2022: Brazilian Felipe Drugovich (MP Motorsport ), winner in Jeddah and Barcelona, Frenchman Théo Pourchaire (ART Grand Prix), victorious in Sakhir and Imola, in the long races on Sunday morning, and Indian Jehan Daruvala (Prema Racing). The first three in the standings on their arrival in Monaco.

Drugovich finished at the top of the time sheet, thanks to a best lap of 1:21.589, ahead of two unexpected drivers at this level, at the start of the weekend: Switzerland’s Ralph Boschung (Campos) and Norway’s Dennis Hauger ( Prema), followed by Briton Jake Hughes (Van Amersfoort) and two sons of former motorcycle world champions, Liam Lawson (5th) and Jack Doohan (6th). Something to make their glorious dads, Eddie and Mick, very proud tonight.

Pourchaire entered the Top 10 of this session, a year after his first victory, in Monaco, in the same category. The second Frenchman entered, Clément Novalak, Drugovich’s teammate at MP Motorsport, had never driven in Monaco in an F2 before. He had to find his bearings and settled for 21st in order to prepare well, without damaging his car, for qualifying on Friday morning.

As with the Formula Regional Alpine, there will be two qualifying groups on Friday morning, with only 11 single-seaters at the same time on the track. For 16 minutes only, so no time to waste.

A container like no other arrived this week in Monaco harbour. It was   developed by the Monaco Fire Brigade, in partnership with the SULITEC Group, based in Isère. This Alternative Energy Vehicle Treatment Unit, designed on the basis of a maritime container, can allow firefighters to intervene in the event of fire on hybrid or electric vehicles, such as the F1s and Formula Es which liven up the streets of the Principality every year, but also electric scooters and all sorts of hybrid or electric vehicles which are more numerous than ever in our streets !

“Once the fire is out, we can cover the vehicle with a special blanket, then bring it back into the container by pulling it using a winch, and constantly monitor the temperature of the batteries, while preventing fumes of toxic gas from spreading into the atmosphere”, Lieutenant-Colonel Maxime Yvrard, of the Monaco Fire Department, explained to Monaco Info, emphasizing the interior equipment of this container, capable of withstanding temperatures of up to 1,100°C.

French group SULITEC is specialized in manufacturing high temperature insulation, mechanical construction and training, with the main objective of protecting people, from product design to on-site assembly. Its SULITEC Insulating Composites branch specializes in the development of thermal insulation intended for niche markets, to compensate for the gradual disappearance of ceramics and asbestos, and to generate energy savings in industrial processes. SULITEC exclusively uses bio-soluble and unclassified fibres. It transforms fibers and technical fabrics into textile complexes and composites. More than 20% of its turnover is devoted to Research & Development.

Reigning Porsche Supercup champion Larry ten Voorde won last year on the streets of Monaco. He thought for a long time that he was going to set the best time in free practice on Thursday afternoon. He finally had to admit defeat by one of his favorite rivals, the German Michael Ammermüller, who won here in 2019: 1:34.998 on his last flying lap, driving his Porsche entered by SSR Huber Racing. This is only 5/100th better than the time of 1:35.051 set by ten Voorde, who finished just ahead of another German from SSR Huber Racing, Laurin Heinrich.

Behind this trio of potential contenders for the win on Sunday, 23-year-old Frenchman Dorian Boccolacci (1:35.452), who stood on the podium here last year as a Porsche Supercup rookie, took 4th place in his car entered by the Martinet/Alméras team, in front of another serious customer, Luxemburg’s Dylan Pereira, entered by Walter Lechner Racing.

Qualifying is scheduled for Friday in the middle of the afternoon, between two free practice sessions for Formula 1. And the race for Sunday at noon. It will be the most anticipated round of this 30th anniversary season of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup.