The final round of the FIA Formula 3 Championship gets underway at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza with the weekend’s first and only practice session. With 6 drivers vying for the championship title, separated by only 32 points, the drivers will be seeking to maximise their findings from the session in the hopes of getting an edge over their rivals into qualifying.
As the session gets underway, Charlie Wurz (WUR), Max Esterson (EST), Matías Zagazeta (ZAG) and Noah Strømsted (STR) are the first to take to the track. This is Strømsted’s first weekend in Formula 3, having earned a call-up from the Formula Regional European Championship. The Dane is competing with Campos Racing, replacing Oliver Goethe who received a promotion to the FIA Formula 2 Championship to replace Formula One-bound Franco Colapinto.
PREMA Racing’s Gabriele Minì (MIN), currently second in the championship, is the first driver to complete a flying lap around the slightly modified Monza circuit, setting a benchmark time of 1:41.324. He soon improves to 1:40.583, taking his place atop the timesheet ahead of his PREMA teammate Dino Beganovic who set a time of 1:41.863. Beganovic soon falls to third as ART Grand Prix’s Laurens van Hoepen goes second with a time of 1:41.704. PREMA Racing’s Arvid Lindblad (LIN), the current championship leader, sits in seventh place, roughly 2.8 seconds off Minì’s time, with debutant Strømsted almost four seconds behind him with a time of 1:47.948.
With just over 30 minutes left in the session, the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) is deployed after MP Motorsport’s Kacper Sztuka (SZT) stops on track on the run-down the Parabolica. The MP Motorsport driver’s session has come to a premature end with marshals being sent to recover his car. This is not the start to the weekend that Sztuka would have been hoping for, with the driver currently twenty-seventh in the championship with only six points.
With 30 minutes now complete, the standings are MIN, VAN, BEG, MAN, SHI, TSO, LIN, STR, BED, ZAG, DUF, INT, EST, DUN, TRA and STE, with the remaining 14 drivers having not yet set a time.
With just about 23 minutes left in the session, the Virtual Safety Car is retired, allowing the session to get back underway. However, the session was soon red-flagged due to there being a significant amount of gravel on the track at the Variante della Roggia. It appears that several drivers have run wide there, putting gravel onto the racing line. The drivers will wait in the pit lane as the marshals clean this up.
With the session paused, the standings are MIN, SHI, VAN, BEG, MAN, TSO, EST, STE, BED, LIN, WUR, STR, BOY, LOA, VOI, ZAG, DUF, INT, MEG, DUN and TRA. The remaining nine drivers, including championship contenders Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli (FOR) and Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Luke Browning (BRO), have yet to set a time.
With just about eighteen minutes left on the clock, the session is green-flagged, allowing the drivers to get back to their practice. The drivers are quick to get back onto the track, hoping to maximise the little time left in the session.
With two thirds of the session now complete, the standings of the session are: MIN, SHI, VAN, BEG, MAN, TSO, EST, STE, BED, LIN, WUT, STR, BOY, LOA, VOI, ZAG, DUF, INT, MEG, DUN and TRA. No time has yet been set by SZT, RAM, MON, FOR, WIS, LEO, FLO, SMI and BRO.
With time ticking down, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Noel León (LEO) goes top with a time of 1:39.470. Browning sits in second, just about 0.1 seconds behind him with a time of 1:39.574, and MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz (TRA) goes third with a time of 1:39.900, just 0.008 seconds ahead of Campos Racing’s Mari Boya (BOY) in fourth.
With only ten minutes left in the practice session, 29 of the 30 drivers had set a time, with the only outlier being Sztuka who was forced to retire on his first lap. Traffic is quite heavy on the track with the majority of drivers attempting laps around the circuit.
Minì goes top with an improved time of 1:38.998, roughly 0.4 seconds ahead of Leon’s time. Lindblad, who was also on a fast lap, goes fourth, setting a time of 1:39.837, 0.8 seconds behind timesheet leader Minì. He soon falls to fifth as ART Grand Prix’s Christian Mansell (MAN) goes second with a time of 1:39.153, 0.1 seconds off Minì’s time.
The drivers are now into the final two minutes of the session, with just about 4.2 seconds separating Minì at the top of the timesheet and AIX Racing’s Nikita Bedrin (BED) at the bottom. Boya and Jenzer Motorsport’s Matías Zagazeta (ZAG) go second and third, setting times of 1:39.029 and 1:39.91 respectively, both within 0.1 seconds of Minì. The gap is soon extended by a few tenths as Minì improves on his time, and the duo soon fall to third and fourth as ART Grand Prix’s Nikola Tsolov (TSO) goes second.
The checkered flag falls on the final FIA Formula 3 practice session of the 2024 season, the drivers are completing their final runs around the circuit. Mansell goes top, setting a time of 1:38.309, but drops to second after a strong lap by Boya sees him go just over 0.1 seconds faster to set a time of 1:38.172. The majority of drivers’ final lap is disrupted, however, as Trident’s Santiago Ramos goes into the gravel at the exit of Lesmo, bringing out the yellow flag in Sectors 2 and 3.
The final standings of the session are BOY, MAN, VOI, MEG, MIN, TSO, SHI, ZAG, BEG, DUF, LEO, STR, BRO, MON, FLO, INT, SMI, LIN, TRA, LOA, WUR, DUN, RAM, WIS, STE, EST, FOR, VAN and BED, with five seconds separating the top and bottom times set by Boya and Bedrin respectively.
FIA Formula 3 will return at 15:00 local time for qualifying.
