Dunne tops Monza F2 practice as Herta crashes out

Alexander Dunne started the Monza weekend quickest in a practice session that was red-flagged for a crash involving Colton Herta. Dunne topped the timing screens for Rodin Motorsport most of the session, the Irishman eventually ending up P1 with a 1m31.957s.

After a quiet start, Emerson Fittipaldi put the first time on the board with a 1m34.793s for AIX Racing. As the clock ticked beneath half an hour to go, more times arrived and Noel León went fastest on a 1m32.715s for Campos Racing, 0.3s clear of Martinius Stenshorne of Rodin Motorsport. Several drivers delivered an improvement on that session-topping time on their next efforts, with Dunne setting a 1m32.297s to go to P1.

Oliver Goethe was next to take over at the top. A 1m32.127s put the MP Motorsport driver fastest but only briefly as Dunne restored himself to the front with a 1:31.957. With 17 minutes to go, the red flags were out after a crash for Herta, who had dipped into the gravel on corner exit out of Turn 7, sending him into the inside wall. He was out of the car and OK, but the Hitech car needed clearing and there was not enough time to get the session restarted before the clock hit zero, leaving Dunne as the fastest driver ahead of Goethe and Nico Varrone in the top three.

Nikola Tsolov was fourth ahead of Roman Bilinski, Joshua Duerksen, Stenshorne, León, Rafael Camara and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak in the top 10.

Qualifying gets underway at 2:55pm local time.

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