F2 | FP | Italian GP | Verschoor tops F2 Free Practice in Monza - Motorsport

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With summer break now over, the Formula 2 grid is back on track at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza for the FP session of the F2 Italian GP. Being the last round of the European leg, pressure is high to perform. Furthermore, Leonardo Fornaroli sits as the leader of the Championship coming into his home race.

The Italian managed to stay at the top of the leaderboard longer than any other driver this season. Coming into this race weekend with a 17-point advantage from DAMS Lucas Oil’s Jak Crawford, Fornaroli will need to defend his position. However, Crawford is not the only contender for the title. The top 5 are separated by only 30 points, making it anybody’s game.

Free Practice begins at Monza

Alongside Leo Fornaroli, Gabriele Minì will also be racing on home soil. Both drivers will surely receive lots of support and encouragement from the packed out crowd. With the weather looking promisingly sunny, at about 26 degrees, the F2 Italian GP FP session began at 11:05 am, local time.

The Temple of Speed is a tricky circuit. The heavy braking corners at Turns 1, 4, and 8 make lock-ups more likely to occur and more damaging to tyres. Every team will attempt to perfect their setups in order to attack Qualifying and snatch a good starting position.

Round 11 got underway as the green lights gave the 22 drivers free rein of the Monza circuit. With only 45 minutes on the clock to get everything in check before Qualifying, timing is key.

Strong start to the weekend

The F2 Italian GP FP saw quite a slow start, with most of the drivers bidding their time before attempting a fast lap. Joshua Dürksen was the one to set the first benchmark with a speedy 1:34.847.

Meanwhile, Fornaroli’s Invicta was nowhere to be seen. The team decided to keep him in the pits in order to catch a good place on track. Besides himself, both MP Motorsport drivers remained in the pit lane.

Drivers started their flying laps, warming their soft tyres, one of the two compounds Pirelli brought for the F2 races. DAMS’ Kush Maini managed to climb the leaderboard with a 1:34.064. The timing had already dropped significantly from Dürksen’s.

One of the first victims to track limits was Arvid Lindblad, whose time got deleted. Nevertheless, this was not the only problem of the session, as traffic became obvious very quickly.

Under the 30-minute mark

With all drivers now out, some other drivers attempted to overtake Maini’s time. However, the driver went for another lap, which regained him that P1 spot with a 1:33.302. The FP session at the F2 Italian GP started to get more and more crowded as many of the drivers wanted to steal some tow from the others.

Dino Beganovic was the first one to see his Hitech slip slightly due to the low downforce around the track. Nevertheless, he just had more of a scare than anything else. Behind Maini, Lindblad and Browning tried their hand at dropping under the DAMS’ time, to no avail.

Ritomo Miyata attempted a flying lap, yet he received an unwelcome surprise as he lost control of his ART. Nevertheless, he managed to get a hold of the car and keep it just outside the curb. These types of instances are expected throughout the weekend.

20 minutes on the clock

Moving the benchmark a bit, Oliver Goethe put his MP in ahead of Mini with a 1:33.017. The gaps at this point in the F2 Italian GP FP session were tight. Less than half a second separated the top 9.

The other MP Motorsport car joined Goethe as Richard Verschoor managed to take off a couple more thousandths. This puts the Dutchman in a very favourable position for the race, as well as the championship. If he can keep the momentum going for the other sessions.

As the clock dropped under 15 minutes, most of the track was back in the pits. With a moment of quiet on track, all drivers and teams took a look at the data they had gathered so far. Surprisingly, the title contender, Fornaroli, was down in P20.

Arvid Lindblad was taken under observation by the Stewarts yet again, getting a black and white flag for track limits. Most of the drivers have problems with running wide at the Monza circuit.

Isack Hadjar, one of the F1 rookies who graduated from F2 last year, watched the session from the paddock. Regaining his balance and control of the car, Lindblad put out a good fast lap that helped him up to P3.

All drivers except for Shields and Stanek returned to the track for the last minutes around Monza. Meanwhile, Beganovic had a small left front lockup, just not his best time out in Italy.

As Dunne climbed up to P3, his lap saw him experiencing some bouncing. The Formula 2 grid was neck and neck when a yellow flag was triggered. Joshua Dürksen went off in Ascari after he lost the apex and spun into the gravel.

A Red Flag end of the session

Most of the drivers were forced to slow down, not managing to finish their current flying laps at the best of their abilities. The AIX car of Dürksen was stuck and had to be removed, therefore requiring a Red Flag. The session stopped early, with a couple of minutes wasted at the end.

While the F2 Italian GP FP session had to stop, Richard Verschoor remained on top of the leaderboard with a final time of 1:32.547. Following closely behind was Luke Browning with his Hitech, just a +0.103 gap. Rounding out the top 3 finishers was Alex Dunne.