Pierre Gasly has opened his Monza weekend in fine style by taking the top spot in this morning’s free practice session at the fabled Italian circuit: the Frenchman stopped the clock at 1:31.669 early in the session for a time which went unanswered by his rivals, with Alexander Rossi and Rio Haryanto the closest to his best lap.
The session opened in sunny conditions which saw all of the field straight out on track. Rossi, Rene Binder and Sergey Sirotkin swapped the top spot between them in the opening minutes: Gasly claimed it as his own 11 minutes into the session before going even faster two minutes later to set a time which was not to be matched.
Not for a lack of trying, though: McLaren tester Stoffel Vandoorne claimed P2 within minutes, but it wasn’t until late in the session that Haryanto pipped the Belgian, with Rossi outdoing the Indonesian driver with just 3 minutes remaining in the session.
With little in the way of off-track escapades throughout the session times were extremely tight: behind the top three Vandoorne, Binder, Sirotkin, Richie Stanaway, Alex Lynn, Arthur Pic and Mitch Evans will all think they have a shot when it counts, in this afternoon’s qualifying session just a few hours from now.
Monza – Free Practice
Driver
Team
Laptime
Laps
1.
Pierre Gasly
DAMS
1:31.669
21
2.
Alexander Rossi
Racing Engineering
1:31.986
20
3.
Rio Haryanto
Campos Racing
1:32.020
17
4.
Stoffel Vandoorne
ART Grand Prix
1:32.040
20
5.
Rene Binder
MP Motorsport
1:32.093
19
6.
Sergey Sirotkin
Rapax
1:32.124
21
7.
Richie Stanaway
Status Grand Prix
1:32.148
18
8.
Alex Lynn
DAMS
1:32.219
20
9.
Arthur Pic
Campos Racing
1:32.240
18
10.
Mitch Evans
RUSSIAN TIME
1:32.312
17
11.
Norman Nato
Arden International
1:32.336
20
12.
Nobuharu Matsushita
ART Grand Prix
1:32.462
22
13.
Artem Markelov
RUSSIAN TIME
1:32.484
17
14.
Raffaele Marciello
Trident
1:32.492
18
15.
André Negrao
Arden International
1:32.524
20
16.
Julian Leal
Carlin
1:32.606
20
17.
Sergio Canamasas
Daiko Team Lazarus
1:32.608
19
18.
Robert Visoiu
Rapax
1:32.768
22
19
Jordan King
Racing Engineering
1:32.769
17
20.
Marlon Stockinger
Status Grand Prix
1:33.057
17
21.
Johnny Cecotto
Trident
1:33.079
19
22.
Meindert Van Buuren
MP Motorsport
1:33.390
18
23.
Patric Niederhauser
Daiko Team Lazarus
1:33.577
14
24.
Simon Trummer
Hilmer Motorsport
1:33.748
19
25.
Jann Mardenborough
Carlin
1:33.891
19