Carlin’s Yuki Tsunoda topped the free practice session for the Formula 2 round at Monza as championship leader Robert Shwartzman ended up outside of the top 10.
The 45-minute session had a frightening near-miss early on as Trident’s Roy Nissany – fresh from a free practice outing with the Williams Formula 1 team – almost collided at high speed with MP Motorsport’s Felipe Drugovich after the pair had a bit of miscommunication.
Just after halfway through the 45-minute session, Campos’s Guilherme Samaia suffered a spectacular engine failure, bringing out a virtual safety car. Samaia ended up the slowest of the 22 drivers.
At that point, it was Tsunoda who was fastest. Once the session returned to green, times struggled to improve which left the Honda junior at the top of the timesheets.
One driver who did manage to improve was ART Grand Prix’s Christian Lundgaard, who ended up fractions behind Tsunoda after his late improvement.
Hitech GP’s Nikita Mazepin was third, ahead of DAMS’ Dan Ticktum. ART’s Marcus Armstrong made a rare top-five appearance in fifth, ahead of former championship leader Callum Ilott.
Prema Racing’s Mick Schumacher ended up seventh, but had mechanics working on the engine area of his car as the session reached its conclusion. Team-mate Shwartzman was only 12th.
Charouz Racing System’s Pedro Piquet, Hitech’s Luca Ghiotto and Campos’s Jack Aitken rounded out the top 10.