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Will Palmer won the race 1 of the Formula Renault Eurocup. The British started on pole and lead all the race to take the win with less than two seconds ahead of the French Sacha Fenestraz. The top 3 stayed the same of the qualifying session a long time before the championship leader Robert Shwartzman (4th) lost the last podium step in favour of Max Defourny.
Kevin Magnussen lacked regularity since his arrival at Haas and he has not managed to shine in the last round at Barcelona. Determined to be competitive here, the Danish opened his Monegasque week-end in a good way with the 13th place in free practice 1 and a 9th position in free practice 2.
« I’m pretty happy with the day, says the former Renault driver. We got everything done that was on our program. The car’s not feeling bad, so I’m looking forward to qualifying Saturday. »
Capable to go one second faster between the two sessions of the Thursday, the Haas driver has been impressed by the new F1’s performance on this twisty track.
« It’s very fast there, enjoyed the Danish. If feels amazing and it’s really good fun to drive. Let’s hope we can be competitive as well. »
Will Palmer set the pole position of the qualifying session of the Formula Renault Eurocup. He realised the fastest time in 1’30’’896. The British will start the race 1 ahead of the French Sacha Fenestraz and the championship leader Robert Shwartzman.
For the race 2, the top 3 is the same even if this time the French Sacha Fenestraz will be on the top of the grid. The Josef Kaufmann Racing driver will be ahead Will Palmer and Robert Shwartzman.
The championship leader Michael Ammermüeller signed the Porsche Supercup’s pole position. The German realised the fastest time in 1’34’’405. He was five tenth faster than the second best of the day Dennis Olsen (+0.519).
The British driver Daniel Cammish (+0.678) set the third time of this qualifying session. Zaid Ashkanani (+0.719) and Matt Campell (+0.834) completed the top five. The French Steven Palette (+1.676) took the fifteenth time of this Friday.
Astonishing third of the Grand Prix de Monaco last year, Sergio Perez started well his week-end by setting the eighth and seventh fastest time of the Thursday free practice session.
« Finishing in the top ten in both session is a good result, says the Mexican. Especially considering I am not feeling fully comfortable with the car yet. We have still a lot of work to do before qualifying. »
If he had cover a lot of laps during this first day (77 laps), « Checo » didn’t understand completely the way to use the different specification of tyres brought by Pirelli this week-end.
« It hasn’t been easy to get tyres into the right window, reveals the Force India driver. This makes it very hard around a place like this where there is no margin for error. We have to analyse all the data and ensure we can get our set-up right for qualifying and race. »
Dennis Olsen set the fast time of the free practice session of the Porsche Supercup. The Norwegian took the top of the field in 1’35’’545. The Walter Lechner’s driver got ahead of the championship leader Michael Ammermüeller (+0.052) and the British Daniel Cammish (+0.214).
On the French side, Steven Palette realised the seventh time a little more than one second back (+1.019) to the fastest time. The other Frenchman Roland Berville (+7.135) had to content himself with the twenty-fourth fastest performance of the day.
Regularly on the top five since the start of the season, Kimi Räikkönen still has not tasted the joy of a win in 2017. If he achieved only one podium finish this year in Russia, the Finn wants to put on his good feeling with the Monegasque circuit to improve his statistics in the Principality.
« I really enjoy the circuit there, says the 2007 world champion. I have some good races and week-ends. I wouldn’t compare this place to another track because Monaco is incomparable. This track is such a big challenge for the drivers and there’s a lot of things that have to go right. »
Victim of a collision during the start two weeks ago in Barcelona, « Ice-Man » wants to avoid problems in this sixth round of the season.
« When the car is working well and you have a good feeling, it’s really nice to drive there, explains the Ferrari driver. But things can go bad quickly and then your week-end becomes very long. »
How special is to have another chance to race on the streets of Monaco again?
It’s always a big challenge to race here in Monaco . For sure I was thinking last year, maybe I will miss that challenge, but it’s always a different challenge to get Monaco . You’re always learning things, every year. The way of driving corner is quite tricky. I think this year will be even a bigger challenge. Tyres are wider. The car is bigger and the track is still quite narrow.
You have started every single race in the top ten this year. But you have only scored 18 points so far. What is going wrong on Sunday?
I had sixth position in my pocket in Russia and I had this puncture in the tyres. I had to stop. In the last race, I had a good start but I touched Alonso because of the incident between Kimi (Räikkönen) and Max (Verstappen) in the first corner. I definitely had the pace to finish in front of the Force India.
Is it realistic to believe that you can be strong here after the last three difficult years?
In the last three years, Monaco was the worst race for us. It was terrible. The feeling that you have here on this track, definitely was not the right track for our car. But you need to keep in mind this time it’s different rules, different challenge for so many different reasons. I can be a little more optimistic is that in the last sector in Barcelona we were not so bad this time. So the car can be a little more competitive here this year.
(Photo Jean-François Galeron)
Lewis Hamilton perfectly started his Monegasque week-end by setting the fastest time of the first free practice session. He got the best time of the morning in 1’13’’425 and also beat the previous track record held by Kimi Räikkönen since 2006 (1’13’’532).
The championship leader Sebastian Vettel took the second fastest time two tenths (+.0.196) behind the Mercedes driver. The four-time world champion finished ahead the Red Bull of Max Verstappen (+0.346) and the other Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas (+0.366).
Close to the win last year in the Principality, Daniel Ricciardo (+0.429) realised the fifth fastest time while Jenson Button signed the fourteenth time for his come back in Formula 1.
The Frenchman Sacha Fenestraz has dominated the free practice session of the Formula Renault Eurocup. The Josef Kaufmann Racing’s driver set the fastest time of the day in 1’31’’583. He took the best time six tenth ahead Alex Peroni (+0.608) and the championship leader Robert Shwartzman (+0.646).
