FR3.5: Nato leads Sainz in Monaco practice

Norman Nato and Carlos Sainz Jr. made it a DAMS one-two in Formula Renault 3.5 free practice on the streets of Monaco on Thursday morning.

While championship leader Sainz spent the entire session as one of the leading runners, regularly trading places at the top with 2013 Monte Carlo podium finisher Jazeman Jaafar, Nato strung a lap together with around 10 minutes remaining to go fastest.

The Frenchman's effort put him clear of Sainz by just 0.04 second, while ISR's Jaafar finished the session half a second down on the DAMS cars as best of the rest in third.

Sauber Formula 1 test driver Sergey Sirotkin was next up ahead of Pietro Fantin, who had also enjoyed a brief spell on top in the early part of the session.

Behind Zoel Amberg in sixth came Sainz's main title challenger Oliver Rowland, who is making his Monaco debut this weekend.

Of the other leading drivers in the title race, Pierre Gasly and Will Stevens were 13th and 14th respectively. Nikolay Martsenko, currently fifth in the standings, is not racing with Comtec this weekend.

The session was relatively incident free, with Luca Ghiotto the only driver to crash when he understeered into the barriers at Ste Devote after 18 of the 45 minutes.