Friday at Monza belonged to two different manufacturers. While Jules Gounon put Mercedes-AMG on top in the opening practice session, Team RJN ensured McLaren ended the day fastest in Free Practice 2, with Ben Dörr’s benchmark surviving a late Full Course Yellow that prevented a final round of improvements.

The opening practice proved competitive, with 48 cars separated by less than one second. Several drivers had spins and some off-road experiences, including a red-flag interruption after Rolf Ineichen spun his #60 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo by JMW Motorsport around in Ascari. Despite the incidents, the session passed without any major damage or serious accidents.

For much of the session, Alex Malykhin seemed to be the driver to beat, but with just five minutes to go, Dennis Lind surpassed his benchmark in the #24 Steller Motorsport Corvette, but it was Jules Gounon of the #3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 by Verstappen Racing who delivered a late-session flyer to keep the marque from Affalterbach at the top of the timesheet at Monza. The Frenchman noted a 1:46.081, edging the competition by a narrow margin.

Pro-class entries occupied the next three positions, with the #17 Mercedes-AMG GT3 by GetSpeed finishing fourth, followed by the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin AMR Vantage GT3 Evo and the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo. Bronze Cup honours went to returnee Sven Müller, whose #97 Rutronik Racing Porsche ended the session seventh overall. For the German outfit the bar is high, as they won the previous Endurance weekend at Paul Ricard.

McLarens set early double marker

The second session of the day got underway at 14:25h CEST in the blistering Italian heat. After the field got a rhythm in in the first couple of minutes, it was Guilherme Oliveira putting his #5 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo on top first. After nine minutes Ben Dörr made it a provisional McLaren one-two by putting his #23 Team RJN car in P2.

They were temporarily overtaken by Marvin Dienst (Mercedes-AMG) and Henrique Chaves (Aston Martin), after which Dörr responded with a new benchmark of 1:46.315, leaving Mikey Porter in the #5 Optimum McLaren behind with 1,5 tenths.

The margins to the competitors were narrow, as Nicklas Nielsen sped up to P3 with his #51 AF Corse Ferrari, missing out on an early P3 spot by just four thousands of a second. Lucas Auer put his Mamba to work to chase the top pace as well, following Nielsen with a margin of just over a tenth. Horatio Fitz-Simon was the first one to beat Dörr’s time by clocking a 1:46.315.

Red Flag with an hour to go

Just as the clock was about to count down from sixty minutes, the session got red flagged due to two Porsches standing still. One of them was the #9 Pure Rxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Max Hofer having issues at the exit of the pit lane, keeping two cars waiting in front of the line till the session would restart.

“We just did a normal pitstop with a normal procedure. I just went to the fast lane and suddenly there was a pop coming from the bonnet, we don’t think fire was noticeable but we don’t have any further information, so we need to check what happened. There was no issue before, going into the fast lane some issue appeared,” Hoffer explained on the broadcast.

At the same time, Stylianos Kolovos stood in the gravel with his #914 Razoon Porsche and needed to be lifted out before making his way back to the pit lane. Soon after both cars were back in the garage, the session was ready to be resumed. At Optimum Motorsport they switched Oliveira for Dante Rappange, with Maximilian Götz taking over from Fabian Schiller. Sean Gelael took the wheel of the #50 AF Corse Ferrari.

Halfway in: BMW has homework, Audi challenges McLaren

With 45 minutes to go, Team RJN remains on top with the #23 McLaren, with Fitz-Simon still behind the wheel. He edged on the #99 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II by Tresor Attempto Racing of Andrea Fassinetto, with the #25 Audi of Sainteloc Racing slotting in on P7. Runplans also seemed to gave shifted for some teams – focussing on long runs instead of shorter runs, although the pace was expected to go up a notch towards the end of the session as well. 

In both sessions BMW hasn’t seemed to show much so far, with ROWE Racing and the #98 BMW M4 GT3 Evo being the only BMW in the top ten, with a gap of about three tenths to McLaren on top. In the Gold Cup, ROWE also seemed to be missing some pace, as Tim Tramnitz clocked a provisional personal fastest lap of 1:47.217 – a gap of almost a second to the Steller Motorsport Chevrolet of Lind.

Meanwhile the #11 Comtoyou Aston Martin took a trip through the gravel as well, with Aaron Muss managing to keep the car out of the wall to return to the track safely. The track got more crowded the closer the session came to its final phase, with a short Full Course Yellow on the 28 minute mark due to debris on the track at turn 11.

Last minute improvements

The teams seemed to oggle some time improvements in the last ten minutes of the practice session, with the 1:46.315 by Team RJN (McLaren) still standing. Mirko Bortolotti entered the top three with the #63 TGI Team by GRT Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo, clocking a 1:46.413. In the last minutes race control dialed in a Full Course Yellow, temporarily stopping flying laps some cars were on.

Jake Dennis brought the #98 ROWE BMW into the overall top eight, with no other car of the München-based marque making it into the overall top twenty after him. Kelvin van der Linde was stuck in P29 with the #32 BMW by Team WRT, with a gap of four tenths to the fastest man on track. As the Full Course Yellow lasted until the last seconds of the session, the time set by the #23 Team RJN McLaren remains on top.

The overall top three is completed by the #24 Steller Motorsport Chevrolet, ending on 1:46.340 and the #63 Lamborghini. Bortolotti was the fastest man in the Pro Cup with the lap he set, followed up by Tommaso Mosca in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari – who missed out on the fastest Pro Cup time with just 0,046 seconds. The #98 ROWE ends in P3.

In the Gold Cup, the #24 Steller Motorsport Chevrolet holds P1 with a 1:46.340, followed by the #99 Tresor Attempto Audi and the #71 Selected Car Racing Ferrari. Both finished within 1,5 tenths of the Chevrolet. In Silver Cup, Team RJN leads the way into race day, with the #66 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi following in P2, after Porsche Supercup graduate Ariel Levi set a lap of 1:46.420. Another McLaren slots into P3 of the Silver Cup timesheet – being the #5 Optimum Motorsport McLaren.

Lastly, the Bronze Cup timesheet was dominated by the #87 Winward Racing Mercedes, setting a best lap of 1:46.481. Alex Fontana put his #89 Lionspeed Porsche in P2 with a 1:46.592. 2 Seas Motorsport finishes the second free practice in P3 of the Bronze Cup timesheet.

Format B and penalties heading into race day

The teams head into race day tomorrow, with qualifying scheduled at 9:50h CEST. The race will start at 15:30h CEST and lasts three hours. This weekend will see a return of ‘Format B’, as seen during previous editions of the 3 Hours of Monza. A driver can drive a stint of maximum 52 minutes, which will be extended to 57 minutes in case of a Full Course Yellow. Therefore there will be three mandatory pitstops.

The #3 Mercedes by Verstappen Racing already has a grid penalty for the race. Chris Lulham, Dani Juncadella and Jules Gounon will start five places further back than their qualifying spot after overtaking under a yellow flag during FP1.

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