FP2: Double 1-2 in practice for Jaguar with Evans pipping Bird to benchmark

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FP2: Double 1-2 in practice for Jaguar with Evans pipping Bird to benchmark

FP2: Double 1-2 in practice for Jaguar with Evans pipping Bird to benchmark 

Mitch Evans pipped Jaguar teammate Sam Bird to the top of the timesheets in Free Practice 2, making it a double 1-2 for the British marque after Bird set the pace in the day's opening session.

Mitch Evans and Sam Bird followed up on a Jaguar Racing 1-2 with another in Free Practice 2, this time Kiwi Evans leading the way from Brit Bird on a 1m31.118s - a second quicker than the benchmark from the day's opening session.

BMW i Andretti Motorsport's Maximilian Guenther had set the early pace to head Nissan e.dams driver Oliver Rowland - a winner here in FIA Formula 2 - and FP1 pacesetter Bird.

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That usual flurry of late-session full-power laps followed with the track constantly evolving and coming to the drivers bit by bit as the minutes ticked down.

The DS TECHEETAH pair initially flew into first and second spot with their late 250kW efforts - Antonio Felix da Costa heading Jean-Eric Vergne by 0.4 seconds. But that wouldn't last, as the Jaguars once again set the pace as almost the final pairing to take the chequered flag - first Evans, with Bird following two tenths of-a-second back.

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Reigning champion da Costa wound up third, with Porsche's Andre Lotterer, Rowland, Robin Frijns (Envision Virgin Racing), Edo Mortara (ROKiT Venturi Racing), standings leader Nyck de Vries (Mercedes-EQ), Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche), and Vergne rounding out the top 10.

 

More than just lap times

Lap times aren't the only focus in practice. Drivers and engineers will be working flat out to understand how the new-to-Formula E full Monaco circuit layout will affect things like energy management profiles and setup. Alex Lynn (Mahindra Racing), for example, noted in FP2 that he was running short of his target for consumption by the final sector - it's that off-the-cuff at a new track as drivers learn, and validate the findings from their simulators.

On top of energy management, teams work through everything from their systems, setups, FANBOOST and ATTACK MODE deployments and launches throughout practice to make sure they're on-point for qualifying and the race later in the day.

Qualifying ahead of the Monaco E-Prix Round 7 is up next at at 12:00 CEST and the race itself follows at 16:00.