Ugochukwu fastest again as Monza stays wet for FREC practice

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

Ugo Ugochukwu followed up his test-topping Thursday run with the fastest free practice time on Friday for the Formula Regional Europe finale at Monza.

As with the day before, wet conditions blighted the track action and led to many drivers going off at the first corner and the della Roggia chicane. In FP1 alone there 58 laptimes deleted due to track limits abuse.

The session was also ended three minutes early by red flags, and before that there had been eight different drivers who had occupied top spot.

KIC Motorsport’s Alex Sawer was fastest at first, setting a 2m00.635s lap in the spray. G4 Racing’s Romain Andriolo beat him by a tiny 0.059 seconds moments later, then R-ace GP’s Tuukka Taponen broke the two-minute barrier as he went 1.439s faster than anyone else.

He was usurped by Sainteloc Racing’s Matteo De Palo, who lapped in the 1m58s, then KIC’s Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi brough the pace down into the 1m57s.

Bhirombhakdi was quickest for less than a minute before Sainteloc’s Theophile Nael posted a 1m57.282s, and next time by he improved to 1m56.663s.

Tapon responded with a laptime just 0.046s faster, only for Nael to complete his next lap and reclaim top spot by 0.424s.

ART Grand Prix duo Evan Giltaire and Alessandro Giusti were the drivers to beat after that, and eventually were lapping in the 1m54s.

Giltaire went fastest first, then Giusti used his slipstream (which was of limited effect in the wet beyond displacement of water) to beat him by 0.295s. It was the same situation next time by, as Giltaire set a 1m55.504s to move back ahead by 0.003s but then Giusti went 0.37s faster than him.

Giusti improved once more two laps after that to 1m54.839s, but later on Giltaire was able to move back ahead by 0.015s.

Ugochukwu was only 0.059s behind in third, and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Pedro Clerot and Prema’s James Wharton were within 0.2s of the pace. FP1 ended with the top 17 split by 0.87s, and with Prema’s champion Rafael Camara down in 25th place.

Although conditions improved enough for everyone to improve their pace in FP2, there was a red flag stoppage again and 49 deleted laptimes.

Bhirombhakdi immediately beat the FP1 benchmark after leaving the pits, setting a 1m54.623s, which team-mate Alex Sawer swiftly wiped a second off.

Trident’s Roman Bilinski and Giusti both set new fastest laps a minute later, before the KIC duo went quickest with 1m52s laps.

The pace improved by two seconds after that, as Trident’s Niko Lacorte and Bilinski lapped in the 1m49s. MP Motorsport’s Valerio Rinicella joined them, Lacorte moved back ahead with a 1m48.133s then Trident’s Ruiqi Liu pipped him by 0.068s.

A few minutes later Bilinski broke into the 1m47s, and was on top for 14 minutes before Ugochukwu set a 1m47.446s early in the session’s second half that would go unbeaten in the remaining 25 minutes of the day.

Free practice results