Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Mari Boya and Francesco Braschi topped Eurocup-3’s two 20-minute qualifying sessions at Monza.
The first laps of Q1 came in after five minutes, with MP Motorsport’s Bruno del Pino establishing an early pace of 1m54.153s.
Finding space on track further back from the main group of cars were Boya, Jose Garfias and Esteban Masson, with the trio heading straight to the top of the times. Boya became the first driver to lap in the 1m50s, and less than a minute later Palou Motorsport’s Miron Pingasov lowered the pace to 1m49.893s.
Boya responded with a 1m48.748s, and seconds later Campos Racing’s points leader Braschi bettered that by 0.011 seconds, with team-mate Masson doing the same before his lap was deleted for track limits abuse and he dropped to ninth. That meant an improvement from MP’s Garfias put him third.
A minute later del Pino returned to the top, setting a 1m48.365s, then Campos’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak went 0.128s faster as Palou’s Javier Sagrera jumped up to third.
MP driver Boya came 0.093s short of matching Inthraphuvasak, while Braschi got within 0.034s of the pace and Sagrera dropped to seventh as his fastest lap was deleted.
There was more pace to be found from the tyres, and Boya matched Inthraphuvasak’s benchmark in the session’s second half. Del Pino put himself ahead of both before his lap was deleted, then Sagrera broke into the 1m47s.
Boya and Masson bettered him with seven minutes to go, with Boya’s 1m47.717s laptime putting him 0.043s ahead of Masson. Del Pino shuffled Sagrera down to fourth, then there were few improvers in the final five minutes.
Ogaard got within 0.086s of pole to qualify third, Braschi went fifth fastest, while Inthraphuvasak and Cenyu Han in seventh and eighth were the only two to improve as they met the chequered flag.
Sebastian Gravlund was 4.032s off the pace having spent most of Q1 in the pits, and William Karlsson missed the session entirely.
Q2 took place several hours later and Sagrera was the early pacesetter. Nine minutes in he was shuffled down to fifth as lots of drivers improved, with Masson going to the top with a 1m48.192s lap.
He led Inthraphuvasak by 0.253s going into the session’s second half, and a few minutes later Boya went to the top with a 1m47.843s. Sagrera was 0.312s behind in second until Masson went fastest again with five-and-a-half minutes to go.
Braschi rose from seventh to third, and improved again to keep that position as Sagrera got within 0.048s of Masson in second place.
After the chequered flag Braschi and Boya went one-two, split by 0.003s, with Masson unable to improve.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Mari Boya MP Motorsport 1m47.717s
2 Esteban Masson Campos Racing +0.043s
3 Sebastian Ogaard MP Motorsport +0.086s
4 Bruno del Pino MP Motorsport +0.222s
5 Francesco Braschi Campos Racing +0.241s
6 Javier Sagrera Palou Motorsport +0.263s
7 Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak Campos Racing +0.483s
8 Cenyu Han GRS +0.506s
9 Jose Garfias MP Motorsport +0.739s
10 Nick Gilkes Drivex School +0.740s
Race 2 grid
1 Braschi 1m47.644s
2 Boya +0.003s
3 Masson +0.119s
4 Sagrera +0.167s
5 Ogaard +0.188s
6 Daniel Nogales Drivex School +0.371s
7 Gilkes 0.426s
8 Garfias +0.428s
9 Inthraphuvasak +0.431s
10 Han +0.605s