Monaco e-Prix FP1: Evans sets late flying lap to top the timesheets

It might have been early in the morning, but anyone lucky enough to live in Monaco awakened to the sound of Formula E cars around the famous circuit.

It only took a matter of seconds for the first incident of the session, with Andre Lotterer having a moment at Mirabeau but he was able to continue.

Just under five minutes into the session a full course yellow test took place, with only a handful of cars on track, but the session went green again less than a minute later.

After the opening laps, it was Jaguar TCS’ Sam Bird who was fastest, with a 1:43.383, nearly half a second faster than NEOM McLaren’s Jake Hughes in the second.

Avalanche Andretti’s Andre Lotterer and Jake Dennis, along with TAG Heuer Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa were all under investigation for speeding in the pitlane, none of which had set a lap time in the opening ten minutes of the session.

At the halfway point it was Oliver Rowland who was leading in his Mahindra, 0.131 seconds ahead of Sébastien Buemi in his Envision Racing.

As the drivers started their final laps, Lucas di Grassi went off at Sainte Devote and brought out the yellow flags. At this point, it was Edoardo Mortara at the top of the timesheets, with this race also being the home e-Prix for the Maserati MSG team.

His team-mate Maximilian Günther was third in the standings as the clock ticked to zero, with Jean-Éric Vergne third in his DS Penske.

However, there were laps still to be completed and it was Mitch Evans that went to the top of the leaderboard in his Jaguar TCS car, with DS Penske’s Stoffel Vandoorne in second. Günther ended the session in third, Mortara in fourth and Vergne rounded out the top five.