Gabriele Minì ended Formula 2 (F2) Free Practice fastest in Monaco, but the championship leader insisted MP Motorsport still had work to do before Friday’s Qualifying session.
The Italian set a 1:21.809 in the closing stages of Thursday’s only practice session, beating Kush Maini by just 0.020s. Alexander Dunne finished third for Rodin Motorsport, while Dino Beganovic and Laurens van Hoepen completed the top five.
For Minì, topping practice offered encouragement rather than comfort. Around Monaco, where qualifying often defines the weekend, the MP Motorsport driver knew the team still needed to refine the car before the field returned to the streets.
“It was quite a good session,” he said. “I felt that pretty much every push lap I was either P1 or P2, so it’s very promising. I still feel we are not fully perfect, so of course we have some work to do for quali, as I’m sure everybody else does as well.”
Red flags limit running in Monaco
Minì’s fastest lap came in a session that gave drivers little rhythm. Oliver Goethe stopped at Turn 16 early on, causing the first red flag before many drivers could complete meaningful push laps.
The track then improved quickly after the restart, with Rafael Câmara, Dunne, van Hoepen and Minì all taking turns near the top of the timing screens. Dunne became the first driver to enter the 1:22s, but Minì kept responding as conditions improved.
A second red flag followed when Rafael Villagómez hit the barriers at the top of Casino Square. The stoppage left the field with limited time to complete late qualifying-style laps.
The final minutes also brought more incidents. Maini came under investigation for erratic driving after an attempted move on Cian Shields, while Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak made contact with Sebastián Montoya at the Fairmont Hairpin. Joshua Dürksen also caused a late yellow flag after hitting the barriers at Sainte Dévote.
Despite the disruption, Minì delivered when the track reached its best condition.
Supersoft data gives Minì useful reference
The Monaco weekend uses the soft and supersoft compounds, with Free Practice giving teams a first read before the expected step towards the purple-marked supersofts in Qualifying.
Minì said the information from practice would help MP Motorsport prepare, even though he expects the track to feel different by Friday.
“It’s very good, more than good it’s useful,” he said. “You now know a bit what to expect tomorrow. Of course it’s going to be really different with two FPs from F1 and another quali from F3, so it’s going to be very different in terms of track temperature and grip level.”
“So we have to take all these things in consideration when looking at the data, when doing tomorrow’s setup and also for me to prepare, but still it’s a very big help.”
“We know there is a big step from the Softs to Supersofts. It’s not too huge, but I mean together with the track improvement and the change of balance, it’s quite big. So it’s very good to see that we adapted well, but of course we still have to do a good quali tomorrow.”
Minì says Monaco experience only goes so far
Minì arrived in Monaco as the championship leader, with MP Motorsport also leading the Teams’ Championship after the opening three rounds. However, he did not believe previous experience around the Principality would automatically give him an advantage.
“To be honest it’s not too relevant in a way because it’s always different,” he explained. “Maybe F1 changes how the compounds feels or F3 does the same, and even for us it’s a different feel.”
“So you have an idea, but it’s in a way not completely pointless, but it’s not as useful as someone would imagine.”
“We can have a rough idea, but then in terms of operating through the lap, we’re talking about very basic stuff, it can be a really big factor and it changes quite a lot. So we will have to see, we will try to build on from the first push and then see how it is.”
Immediate pace crucial in Qualifying
Monaco’s split qualifying format gives drivers little time and little room for mistakes. With red flags always a risk, Minì said drivers had to be quick almost immediately without overreaching too early.
“In a way you can’t go too easy in the first laps, because you never know what can happen in Monaco,” he continued. “It’s always very easy for anyone to tap a wall and create a Red Flag, a yellow flag and everything like that.”
“So you still need to be up there almost straight away. Yes, build because you don’t want to be at the very edge on the first push, because there is no point doing that anyway with tyres that are not going to be in the window.”
“But at the same time you can’t be sleeping, so it’s going to be about who finds the best compromise.”
Minì targets clean execution after strong start
Minì ended Thursday with the fastest lap and clear evidence that MP Motorsport had pace around Monaco. However, his comments showed that he viewed practice as only the first step.
The gap to Maini was just 0.020s, and the red flags underlined how quickly a Monaco session can turn. If Minì wants to convert his practice pace into pole, he will need the balance, timing and confidence to come together when Qualifying begins.
