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Mahindra’s de Vries tops both Saturday practice sessions at Monaco E-Prix
Mahindra got the Monaco E-Prix off to the best possible start with Nyck de Vries topping both practice sessions on Saturday morning.
In a change from the usual Formula E format, two 30-minute practice sessions took place on Saturday morning instead of 40 minute sessions on Friday evening and Saturday morning.
De Vries' time of 1m27.050 was 0.277s quicker than Porsche's Pascal Wehrlein in the opening session, with Dan Ticktum in the Porsche-powered Cupra Kiro of Dan Ticktum in third. Edoardo Mortara was fourth in the second Mahindra, with Andretti’s Jake Dennis, Jaguar TCS Racing’s Mitch Evans, and Nico Mueller in the other factory Porsche next up.
Felipe Drugovich (Andretti), Taylor Barnard (DS Penske), and Norman Nato (Nissan) completed the top-10.
Reigning champion Oliver Rowland was one of only two drivers to not complete a lap with the full 350kW and four-wheel-drive along with Lola Yamaha Abt’s Zane Maloney. He caused a yellow flag with an off at the first turn but was able to continue.
In the second session, de Vries' benchmark was lowered to 1m26.664, with Mortara making it a Mahindra 1-2, 0.160s back. Evans was third, ahead of DS Penske's Maximilian Guenther with Dennis, Ticktum, Wehrlein and Mueller again in the top 10. Joel Eriksson – the only driver in the field with no previous Monaco experience – was 10th for Envision Racing.
The second session was shortened after Maloney hit the barriers at Massinet after losing his brakes. The crash means that he will miss qualifying. Barnard also had a brush with the barriers after the tunnel but was able to continue, albeit with bent steering.
Dominik Wilde
Dominik often jokes that he was born in the wrong country – a lover of NASCAR and IndyCar, he covered both in a past life as a junior at Autosport in the UK, but he’s spent most of his career to date covering the sliding and flying antics of the U.S.’ interpretation of rallycross. Rather fitting for a man that says he likes “seeing cars do what they’re not supposed to do”, previously worked for a car stunt show, and once even rolled a rally car with Travis Pastrana. He was also comprehensively beaten in a kart race by Sebastien Loeb once, but who hasn’t been?
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