PRACTICE: Martins dominant in opening Monte Carlo session

Victor Martins was in a class of one on the opening day of running in Monte Carlo, logging a 1:21.715 to lead the way for ART Grand Prix.

The Frenchman was the only driver in the 1:21s in Practice, as Luke Browning and Leonardo Fornaroli followed in second and third places for Hitech TGR and Invicta Racing respectively.

With the first round of laps on the board, Championship leader Alexander Dunne set the pace on a 1:25.666 for Rodin Motorsport.

Sami Meguetounif settled into second less than a tenth behind in the #22 TRIDENT, with Gabriele Minì third for PREMA Racing with 10 minutes gone.

Jak Crawford and then Martins brought the time to beat down, the ART driver took over P1 with a 1:24.014. The Frenchman then improved to go six-tenths clear, putting in a 1:23.230 on his next attempt.

Martins continued to fly, with the Williams Racing Academy talent improving onto a 1:22.623, with fellow Williams junior Browning in P2, 0.7s back at the halfway stage.

There was a brief lull as drivers returned to the pitlane for a fresh set of tyres before the final 15-minute spell of on-track running.

With Supersoft Pirelli tyres fitted, Minì looked set to go quickest but a Red Flag was thrown after Amaury Cordeel nosed his Rodin Motorsport car into the Turn 1 barriers.

He was out of the car and the Rodin was recovered, leaving seven minutes of Free Practice left to run as things went back to green flag conditions.

There were several late improvements, with Minì resuming from where he left off prior to the temporary stoppage as he went quickest of all.

That was until Martins completed his Supersoft lap to go 0.7s clear of the pack with the fastest time of the day.

Browning and Fornaroli found a late improvement to go second and third quickest, splitting Martins and dropping Minì to fourth.

Imola polesitter Dino Beganovic ended up fifth ahead of MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor in P6. Arvid Lindblad, Dunne, Roman Stanek and Crawford completed the top 10.

Tomorrow brings Qualifying in a two-part session with the drivers split into two groups. Group A consists of even-numbered cars and will hit the track at 15:10 local time on Friday, followed by Group B and the odd-numbered cars at 15:34.