PRACTICE: Boya quickest in opening Monza session

Campos Racing’s Mari Boya started the Monza weekend on top, setting a 1:38.172 to lead the pack in Free Practice.

The Spaniard saved his best time for last, able to pip Christian Mansell and Callum Voisin, who wound up second and third for ART Grand Prix and Rodin Motorsport respectively.

Gabriele Minì was the first to put down a laptime, setting a 1:41.324 to lead early on. The Italian lowered his personal best shortly afterwards to a 1:40.583 with the opening 10 minutes gone.

Teammate and title rival Arvid Lindblad had a minor off-track excursion at Lesmo 2 as the PREMA driver ran wide and through the gravel but was able to rejoin.

A Virtual Safety Car was deployed with just over half an hour to go after Kacper Sztuka came to a halt ahead of the Parabolica in the MP Motorsport #8 car.

With the Polish driver’s car cleared, green flag running resumed, but a Red Flag followed with 25 minutes remaining. Several drivers ran through the gravel at the Variante della Roggia chicane to leave the track covered in gravel which required clearing away.

Practice got back underway with 18 minutes remaining of the session and the track was busy immediately.

Into the final 15 minutes and the times rolled in, with Boya putting his Campos car at the head of the field on a 1:39.998 before Noel León beat that for Van Amersfoort Racing by 0.139s.

Luke Browning then put his first time on the board to go quickest of all by almost three-tenths of a second on a 1:39.574.

León returned to P1 on his next lap to lower the benchmark time to a 1:39.470 heading into the final 10 minutes of running.

Minì then restored himself to the top spot with a 1:38.998, 0.4s quicker than León’s effort and comfortably fastest of the title contenders.

Christian Mansell lifted himself up the order with a 1:39.153 to go second-fastest for ART Grand Prix inside the final five minutes.

Boya then displaced the Australian to go within 0.031s of Minì’s time until the Italian finished off his final effort to improve one last time on a 1:38.687.

Mansell managed to go quicker still, but Boya left his best effort to last, to end up quickest of all on a 1:38.172.

As the chequered flag waved, Santiago Ramos suffered a spin in the Trident at Lesmo 2 to become beached in the gravel to round out an eventful opening session.

Formula 3 Qualifying at Monza is set to get underway at 15:00 local time, with Group A consisting of even-numbered cars. The remaining odd-numbered cars will follow at 15:21 local time, with the grid then aggregated together.