Sam Bird Monaco 2013

Sam Bird sets the pace in Monte Carlo
 
British driver leads RUSSIAN TIME 1-2 in Round 4 free practice
 
Sam Bird set the tone in this morning’s free practice in the streets of Monaco: the Brit’ from RUSSIAN TIME clocked a laptime of 1:21.512 in a trouble free session, five hundredths quicker than teammate Tom Dillmann. Rookie Mitch Evans finished third.
 
Under clear blue skies, the pitlane opened and the twenty-six cars fed onto the track on Soft Pirelli tyres. Evans set the early pace, but it was Bird who was on a mission and topped the timing sheets in the first ten minutes of the session with a laptime of 1:23.402. Marcus Ericsson improved the Brit’s time by four tenths, but Dillmann put his head down and found the extra pace to break under the 1m23s barrier and bettered the DAMS’ man’s time by six tenths. Evans and Felipe Nasr also went under 1m23s, with Fabio Leimer moving up to second, one tenth slower than Dillmann.
 
Halfway through the session, Bird edged his teammate out of the top spot by four hundredths. Dillmann was then on a flyer and looked set to improve again, but Stéphane Richelmi spun and stopped at Rascasse ruining the Frenchman’s efforts, Dillmann having to settle for P2 ahead of Leimer.
 
With today’s qualifying session being divided into two groups of fifteen minutes each, most of the teams chose to switch to Super Soft tyres for the second part of the free practice in order to evaluate the level of grip with the option tyres. The laptimes improved again and Bird, Dillmann and Evans dipped under 1m22s. At the chequered flag, Bird remained top ahead of his teammate and the Arden driver. Last year’s sprint race winner Jolyon Palmer finished fourth ahead of Ericsson, Johnny Cecotto, Leimer, Nasr, Rio Haryanto and James Calado, the latter who in an effort to find his car’s limits concluded his session going off track at Ste Devote in the dying minutes.
 
The Qualifying session will start at 16:15 local time with Group A gathering all odd numbered cars (including Bird, Ericsson, Nasr, Haryanto and Calado). After a ten minute break, Group B with all even numbered cars will start their session at 16:40 local time.
Monte Carlo – Free Practice
Driver
Team
Laptime
Laps
1.
Sam Bird
RUSSIAN TIME
1:21.512
15
2.
Tom Dillmann
RUSSIAN TIME
1:21.569
18
3.
Mitch Evans
Arden International
1:21.754
17
4.
Jolyon Palmer
Carlin
1:22.059
19
5.
Marcus Ericsson
DAMS
1:22.290
18
6.
Johnny Cecotto
Arden International
1:22.391
15
7.
Fabio Leimer
Racing Engineering
1:22.499
13
8.
Felipe Nasr
Carlin
1:22.516
17
9.
Rio Haryanto
Barwa Addax Team
1:22.578
16
10.
James Calado
ART Grand Prix
1:22.647
18
11.
Julian Leal
Racing Engineering
1:22.795
18
12.
Kevin Ceccon
Trident Racing
1:22.872
18
13.
Alexander Rossi
EQ8 Caterham Racing
1:22.979
18
14.
Jake Rosenzweig
Barwa Addax Team
1:23.251
16
15.
Nathanaël Berthon
Trident Racing
1:23.365
19
16.
Sergio Canamasas
EQ8 Caterham Racing
1:23.369
18
17.
Stefano Coletti
Rapax
1:23.527
17
18.
Simon Trummer
Rapax
1:23.633
17
19
Stéphane Richelmi
DAMS
1:23.648
10
20.
Robin Frijns
Hilmer Motorsport
1:23.702
19
21.
Daniel Abt
ART Grand Prix
1:23.854
19
22.
Rene Binder
Venezuela GP Lazarus
1:23.905
19
23.
Daniel De Jong
MP Motorsport
1:24.223
19
24.
Jon Lancaster
Hilmer Motorsport
1:24.600
11
25.
Kevin Giovesi
Venezuela GP Lazarus
1:24.755
19
26.
Adrian Quaife-Hobbs
MP Motorsport
1:24.916
19