Formula 3 is back, having just finished racing in Imola last week, where Campos Racing’s Oliver Goethe took home the win in the Sprint Race but finished second in the Feature behind Sami Meguetoiunif.
The lights go green for the practice session, but there is a notable difference in the line-up for Monaco. Matias Zagazeta had to have emergency surgery earlier this week to get his appendix removed. James Henley was announced as his replacement.
Leonardo Fornaroli and Gabriele Minì were the first to set their flying times, with Minì in the lead with a 1:27.400.
The red flag was soon out as Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak crashed into the barrier at turn 1. His car was damaged, but this was not the ideal start to the weekend for the AIX Racing driver. The red flag was also not ideal for the 29 other drivers, as the clock continued to run, as they waited in the pit lane.
With 30 minutes left in the session, the drivers were given the green light, but the red flag was out just a few moments in, as Callum Voisin also crashed into the turn 1 barrier following light contact.
As the cars prepared to go out again, the weather started to take a turn. Thunder could be heard and rain started to fall when the drivers were given the go.
Monaco proved unforgiving as Meguetounif was caught out in the heavy rain, and became turn 1’s next victim, halting the session once more. He lost the car well before the corner and clouted the barriers hard on the outside of turn 1, damaging his left rear tyre and suspension.
The teams have started to put wet tyres on their cars, which was not ideal as 12 drivers have never driven on this track before.
The drivers were given the go with just 12 minutes left in the session. As the drivers increased their lap counts while learning the track on their wet tyres, PREMA’s Arvin Lindblad became the latest driver to go off. He went straight on at Mirabeau, but was able to avoid the barriers.
With the chequered flag waived, Minì finished fastest, ahead of Fornaroli and Dino Beganovic. Meguetounif finished in fourth, followed by Voisin and Christian Mansell. Rounding up the top 10 was Piotr Wisnicki in seventh, Nikola Tsolov in eighth, Lindblad in ninth. Laurens van Hoepen, finished in tenth.
While the mere 12 minutes of running on the wets is not ideal, it will be helpful for the qualifying session tomorrow as many drivers attack Monaco for the first time.
