Boya fastest, points leader Fornaroli 27th in F3 practice at Monza

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Campos Racing’s Mari Boya was fastest in free practice for the the FIA Formula 3 Championship finale at Monza.

He set a 1m38.172s at the very end to lead the way by 0.137 seconds over ART Grand Prix’s title outsider Christian Mansell.

There was almost no track activity for the first nine minutes, with Prema duo Gabriele Mini and Dino Begonovic the only drivers setting laptimes.

They were then joined by several others, but Mini remained fastest by two seconds having set a 1m41.324s.

He then improved to 1m40.583s, with Beganovic remaining second but still over a second off his team-mate.

ART GP’s Laurens van Hoepen shuffled him down to third just before a virtual safety car period 12 minutes in, and Mini held a 1.1s pace advantage over the rest of the field.

A third of the way through practice there were still 17 drivers yet to record laptimes, and 20 minutes in that number still stood at nine as red flags waved due to MP Motorsport’s Kacper Sztuka stopping on track.

Hitech GP’s Cian Shields had got into second just before, 0.866s slower than Mini.

Practice restarted with just under 17 minutes to go, and almost everyone headed straight out. There were improvements being made as soon as the first flying laps were set, with Campos’s Sebastian Montoya trimming Mini’s gap at the top down to 0.45s.

Moments later his team-mate Boya lowered the pace to 1m39.998s, and MP’s Alex Dunne demoted Mini to third with a 1m40.337s. Trident’s Sami Meguetounif went fourth fastest, ahead of Montoya, Jenzer Motorsport’s Max Esterson and Shields.

Next to occupy second place was Trident’s Santiago Ramos, who set a 1m40.279s, and several drivers went off at the Roggia chicane but there was no need for yellow flags as all swiftly rejoined but scattered gravel onto the track.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Noel Leon went quickest in sectors two and three to lower the pace to 1m39.859s, and on his next lap improved again to 1m39.470s as Hitech’s title contender Luke Browning slotted into second just 0.104s behind having briefly held top spot before Leon completed his lap.

MP’s Tim Tramnitz went third fastest with 10 minutes to go, and there was no further changes towards the top of the timesheet until Mini reclaimed first place with six minutes to go by setting a 1m38.998s. At the same time, Prema team-mate and title rival Arvid Lindblad jumped up from 29th place to fourth.

Mini once again had a big gap at the top until Mansell set a 1m39.153s with three-and-a-half minutes left on the clock, then in the last 70s of practice almost every single driver improved and the order was constantly changing with 27 cars on track. One of the three absentees was Trident’s points leader Leonardo Fornaroli.

Mansell snatched top spot with one second to go thanks to a 1m38.309s lap, but that was then beaten by Boya. Mini was the next highest title contender in fifth, and Fornaroli ended up 27th.

Free practice results