Monaco E-Prix: Evans dominates practice as Barnard gets up to speed

Mitch Evans, Jaguar Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 6

Jaguar’s Evans was in strong form on Saturday morning across each of the two 30-minute practice sessions, as the Kiwi ended with a 1m29.521s around the Monte Carlo circuit.

Heading into the final 10 minutes in FP2, Edoardo Mortara’s 1m30.452s stood as the benchmark before his lap was bested by Evans, who became the first man to dip below the 1m30s barrier – posting a 1m29.648s.

Any chance for Mortara to improve his lap was scuppered after he ran into the barrier at Turn 1, damaging the suspension on his Mahindra and ending his session as he finished 12th.

Evans marginally improved with his final effort to lower the best time to a 1m29.521s, which left him 0.129s clear of Robin Frijns.

The Envision driver had also improved with his final effort as he headed the Porsche cars of current joint championship leader Pascal Wehrlein and Antonio Felix da Costa.

Maserati MSG’s Maximilian Guenther and ERT’s Dan Ticktum completed the top six, with the latter just over half a second behind Evans.

Reigning champion and also joint championship leader Jake Dennis could only finish 15th for Andretti.

Taylor Barnard finished the second session last of the 22 runners, 2.178s off Evans’s best, having been drafted in at the very last moment following a wrist injury to Bird in the opening session.

Bird locked up with 10 minutes of the opening session remaining into the first turn, Sainte Devote, and took to the escape road at high speed.

The McLaren driver made contact with the barrier and suffered the injury after leaving his hands on the steering wheel during the impact.

Barnard will make his Formula E debut later today having performed reserve driver duties for McLaren in Formula E.

Evans had earlier topped the opening session with a 1m30.414s which left him 0.299s clear of Frijns and team-mate Nick Cassidy.

The session was stopped for a few minutes approaching the halfway point after an advertising banner came loose on the run down from Casino Square, which was the only stoppage from either practice session.