Johnny Cecotto jr. quickest during GP2 practice at Monaco

Venezuelan driver Johnny Cecotto jr. has ended a frenetic practice session fastest for this weekends Monaco GP2 event, only just pipping Championship leader Davide Valsecchi to the top spot. Valsecchi subsequently finished the session 2nd, ahead of Fabio Leimer who ended up 3rd for Racing Engineering.

With 26 cars all preparing to take to the Monte-Carlo street circuit, mayhem was expected as the session got underway. The Lotus of Esteban Gutierrez was first out, and unfortunately was the first driver to end up in the wall at turn 1. The Mexican driver simply lost control of his car, and tried to correct his mistake before the inevitable occurred. However, the session did not get red flagged as the superlative Monaco marshals were able to clear away the stricken car in a matter of minutes.

As the session returned to green flag conditions, the times quickly began to tumble in traditional GP2 fashion. Luiz Razia and Josef Kral swapped fastest times at first, before Max Chilton and Giedo van der Garde went top. With every mistake made by drivers around the Monte-Carlo circuit ending in disaster, Giancarlo Serenelli was next to cause yellow flags to flutter. The Venezuela GP Lazarus driver spun his car through La Rascasse chicane, stalling the engine and subsequently ending his practice session. Once again the marvelous marshals were able to push the car out of danger, and allow the session to resume in a matter of minutes.

The times continued to get quicker as the session continued, with Jolyon Palmer opting for the super-soft Pirelli rubber first. The iSport International driver was unable to make use of this advantage at first, with traffic delaying his laps.

Giedo van der Garde became the next driver to make a mistake, as the Dutchman out-broke himself through La Rascasse. This incident was reminiscent of Michael Schumacher’s incident in 2006, when the German ‘parked’ his Ferrari at La Rascasse thus preventing Alonso from beating his time.

After the yellow flags were withdrawn following van der Garde’s incident, Fabio Leimer shot to the top with a 01:22.750. This time looked set remain the fastest in session, as Josef Kral spun his Barwa Addax car on the exit of turn 16. However, with the Monaco marshals once again exceeding expectations in clearing the stricken car, the track returned to green flag conditions. This enabled Championship leader Davide Valsecchi to go fastest with a 01:22.745, before Johnny Cecotto jr. just pipped the Italian driver with a 01:22.075.

With the madness of the practice session now over, qualifying will take place later this afternoon and will be split into two groups. This will hopefully prevent traffic building up, and will thus allow drivers to complete quick and clean laps throughout their 14 minute sessions’.

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