Will Palmer and Sacha Fenestraz will share the pole positions for the two Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Championship races around the streets of Monte Carlo, thanks to the unique qualifying procedure introduced for this weekend.
Qualifying was split into two sessions around the street circuit in order to give all thirty drivers the opportunity to get some clear runs in, but the grids for both races were set by the sessions. The driver who set the fastest time of the day will start the second race from pole position, while the fastest driver in the other group would lead the way in Saturday’s opener.
Fenestraz set the fastest time in Group B for Josef Kaufmann Racing to take pole position for Sunday’s race, with the French-Argentine driver looking for a second victory around the streets of Monaco, having triumphed there in the inaugural series race in 2016. Fenestraz did have to survive a brush against the wall and a spin during the session.
Group A was headed by Palmer, and as a result the Briton will start Saturday’s race from the front for R-ace GP.
Daniel Ticktum would have started third for race one, but the Arden Motorsport driver will drop two places to fifth thanks to the penalty carried over from Pau, which means championship leader Robert Shwartzman will start both races from the inside of the second row for R-ace GP, while his team-mate Max Defourny moves up to fourth.
Much like Ticktum, Alex Peroni also loses two places for a Pau infringement, meaning the most recent race winner will drop from fifth on the grid to seventh, with Richard Verschoor moving up to sixth for MP Motorsport, while Gabriel Aubry, Alexey Korneev and Aleksandr Vartanyan complete the top ten.
Behind Fenestraz, Palmer and Shwartzman, Ticktum will start race two from fourth on the grid ahead of Defourny, Peroni, Aubry, Verschoor, Vartanyan and Korneev.
With only twenty-eight places available on the grid and thirty drivers racing this weekend, two drivers will sit out each race, but with the championship insisting that every driver will race at least once, those who were slowest in their respective sessions will start race one but will sit out race two, with those who were fourteenth in each session doing the opposite.
Sacha Fenestraz will start race two at Monaco at the front of the field – Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd
Monaco Qualifying Result
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