Shwartzman leads disrupted Monaco F2 practice

FIA Formula 2 returned to the streets of Monaco with a red flag-littered practice session which saw PREMA’s Robert Shwartzman take top spot by an impressive half a second.

The majority of the laps came at the end of the session after it was twice halted due to mechanical failures. Marino Sato was the first to grind to a halt in his Trident before Gianluca Petecof suffered a dramatic engine blow up which coated the Monte-Carlo skies in smoke.

Once they had been cleared and a brief virtual safety car for Bent Viscaal, who found the barriers at La Rascasse, Shwartzman got a clean lap in and fired himself to the top.

Two-time Macau GP winner Dan Ticktum is expected to impress given his record on street circuits and slotting into second was the perfect start to his weekend as he looks to gain some ground back in the championship fight.

Juri Vips had a horror weekend in Bahrain but fought back to be third in practice for Hitech GP with Felipe Drugovich’s UNI-Virtuosi making it four different teams at the head of the field.

Oscar Piastri was fifth but almost a second off his teammate’s benchmark time, although he’d expect to be closer come qualifying later today.

Ralph Boschung was the surprise star man in sixth as one of only four drivers who have raced Formula 2 at Monaco before with Guanyu Zhou ninth, Roy Nissany tenth and Jack Aitken (replacing Matteo Nannini at HWA Racelab) 12th.

Liam Lawson continued to look very comfortable behind the wheel in seventh ahead of Marcus Armstrong in the DAMS. We’re yet to see the best of ART with Théo Pourchaire down in 14th and Christian Lundgaard a lowly 18th.