End of the Century Talented Racer

Chapter 180 Unexpectedly
The first free practice of the Moroccan Grand Prix ended soon in Monte Carlo, and Vergil finally ranked first in the final stage with a time of 1:12.Another Leysen driver, Tesrock, was 126 seconds behind and helped the team take the top two. Stewart and Daniel ranked third and fourth respectively.

However, Teslock was investigated for allegedly violating the rules of reversing in the buffer zone of Turn [-].The Leysin driver crashed into the buffer zone due to locked front tires, but Teslok did not choose to turn around by flicking the tail, but reversed back onto the track.Santak, who happened to be driving to Turn [-] at this time, had to take a shortcut at Turn [-] to avoid colliding with Teslock.

本赛季焕然一新的轮胎配方最软胎在本次自由练习中首次亮相。由于该款轮胎将是正赛中几乎所有车手的首选胎，多支车队在FP1的前40分钟中就对“粉胎”进行了测试。特斯洛克在这一阶段做出了1分12秒723的成绩排名第一。这一圈速已经比一年前的FP1最快圈快了0.7秒。另一位莱森车手弗吉尔落后0.416秒排名第二。除了莱森以外，东生也对这一款配方进行了数圈的测试。

However, Ice City did not test the softest tires at the beginning of FP1. Both Stewart and Seawell chose to use the moderately soft ultrasoft tires to drive on the track this weekend.

接下来的20分钟里，最软胎成为了三大车队的测试中心，最快圈速也多次被刷新。斯图尔特率先使用最软胎做出1分12秒480的最快圈，但几分钟后卫冕冠军的成绩却被特斯洛克做出的1分12秒280超越。

余下的半小时中仅有弗吉尔再次进行了冲刺圈的测试。莱森车手做出1分12秒126的成绩领先队友0.154秒占据榜首成绩。这一圈速也最终成为了FP1的最快成绩。值得注意的是，该单圈已经超越了一年前丹尼尔的杆位圈成绩。

Zhang Yue ranked fourth in this game.The rookie who just entered F1 this season unexpectedly became No.1 in the mid-range camp in this section of practice.

Although the track still lacked grip at the beginning of the weekend, very few drivers made mistakes in this session of practice.Only Adonis damaged his right rear wheel when he rubbed against the wall on the starting straight.Fortunately, the bottom plate of the Salvador car was not damaged, and Adonis finally ranked tenth.

Altair, who missed the Monaco Grand Prix a year ago due to an accident, returned to the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend for the first time in two years.But the Spaniard suffered brake failure after the start of FP1, and the Citroen driver returned to the track with only about 10 minutes left in the first free practice.The two-time world champion ended up ranked 17th.

In addition, Wesley also suffered from car failure.The Porter driver completed only 7 single-lap tests and ranked last.

Dongsheng upgraded the suspension last weekend. Regarding the performance of the previous weekend, some technical experts said that the suspension upgrade brought by Dongsheng during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend was the main reason for the rapid tire failure.However, Dongsheng did not confirm or deny the results of this analysis.

Judging from the weekend of the Monaco Grand Prix, Dongsheng does think that the suspension may be a major reason for the premature tire failure.Daniel's car will be "testing" the old suspension this weekend.It's unclear if Daniel will be using that specification of suspension throughout the race weekend.

In the second free practice session, the Leisen team performed very strongly and ranked first and second again.Vergil broke the track record and ranked first, followed by teammate Tesrock 0.194 seconds behind.Daniel and Stewart failed to compete with the Leysen duo, and only ranked third and fourth.

In the first half hour, all three tires from this weekend were put to the test by the drivers.Among them, Teslock put his focus on the softest tire sprint lap very early.Teslok continued to set new fastest times, and finally set the fastest lap time of 1 minute, 12 seconds and 071 seconds.This lap time is 1.109 seconds faster than Daniel's on the ultra-soft tire.

However, half an hour after the start of free practice in the second quarter, the organizing committee had to repair the manhole cover between turns 4 and 5 because it became loose.Therefore, the competition also issued a red flag to suspend free practice in this section.The disruption of the red flag also caused some drivers to end the sprint circle simulation of some drivers ahead of schedule.

好在修复很快完成，FP2也在15分钟后恢复。几乎所有车手都在随后的30分钟里进一步对最软胎的冲刺圈进行了尝试。而弗吉尔在这一次练习中占据上风。莱森车手做出1分11秒841的圈速，成为历史上首位突破1分12秒大关的车手。队友特斯洛克落后0.194排名第二。

Dongsheng and Bingcheng were not able to match the lap speed of the Laisen duo in the second sprint lap.Daniel was third, 0.572 seconds behind Virgil, and Stewart was fourth, 0.695 seconds behind.Santak and Seaver ranked fifth and sixth, respectively.

In the remaining second free practice, almost all drivers started their own heavy-duty oil test.Therefore, the ranking of the performance list has hardly changed.It is worth noting that Bingcheng tested the supersoft tire.Considering that the tire supplier had previously confirmed that the softest tire could last the whole race, the supersoft tire was not regarded as the "available tire" in the race.

The competition for No.1 in the midstream group is very close in FP2.There is less than 11 seconds between Alex, who is ranked seventh, and Katildan, who is ranked No.0.2.

In the past few races, Catildan and Easter have been recognized as the two drivers with the worst performance.The former had to miss qualifying after crashing in third practice at the Spanish Grand Prix.The latter was scoreless after several races and only ranked second to last in the drivers standings.It even caused a big crash on the first lap of the Spanish Grand Prix.

Therefore, after the Spanish Grand Prix, some media reported that the driver seats of the two may have been lost.There are even rumors that the Monaco Grand Prix will most likely be Catildan's last Grand Prix, and the Leysin II team is ready to "rent" another driver to replace Catildan after that.

However, Catildan denied the news and said that he is still capable of retaining his driver's seat. "I'm very surprised by these rumors because I have a contract with the team. I'm feeling more and more confident. I did have two weeks where I didn't perform well, but I've been on the bench in two of the last three races. Defeated Alfredo in the title match."

"I think I am fully capable of playing my position." Katildan said in an interview with reporters.

(End of this chapter)