Practice-
Ugo Ugochukwu was the one to beat in the final Practice session of the season, the PREMA Racing driver’s last lap of the session putting him on top of the timesheets.
The American’s 1:38.473 was quickest of all, over a tenth clear of Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov and PREMA teammate Noel Leon.
The session got underway with Theophile Nael setting a 1:41.780, putting him over a tenth ahead of home favourite Brando Badoer.
But then came the Italian’s teammate Ugochukwu and Leon, with the former going to P1 on a 1:40.455, while the latter settled for second, 0.229s behind.
Nael then took P1 back with a 1:40.084, eclipsing Leon’s improved time by 0.116s as MP Motorsport’s Alessandro Giusti rounded out the top three.
However, with nearly 20 minutes gone in the session and after setting the fastest first sector, Roman Bilinski spun into the barrier at the Ascari chicane, bringing out the Red Flags.
Running resumed with 16 minutes to go and there were several changes near the top of the field as Rafael Camara went fastest on a 1:39.346, with Martinius Stenshorne following him across the line to end up 0.242s off the 2025 Champion.
The Hitech TGR driver then improved to a 1:39.189 on his next lap to go fastest.
But just as he did that, many of the teams opted to bring their drivers into the pitlane to swap the carry-over Medium tyres to the Softs.
On the first runs it was Callum Voisin that went fastest on a 1:38.721, with Nael and Nikola Tsolov in second and third all within a tenth of the Rodin Motorsport driver.
But they were able to push on for another lap on the Softs and this time it was Ugochukwu that took P1 on a 1:38.473, beating Tsolov by 0.128 with his teammate Leon in third.
Qualifying-
Group A
Nikita Johnson and Roman Bilinski were the first ones out of the pitlane at the green light, with the rest of the field joining them out on track with over five minutes to go.
Rafael Camara’s only lap put him P1 with a 1:38.520, just 0.093s clear of Ugo Ugochukwu, with Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak in third.
Alessandro Giusti, Tim Tramnitz and Callum Voisin, having been at the front of the field, were the only ones able to continue on for a second lap. But just as they did that, Camara’s time was deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 5.
Giusti then completed his lap to go P4 ahead of his MP Motorsport teammate, while Voisin wound up 10th in the group.
This let Ugochukwu on top of the group and on provisional pole with a 1:38.613. Inthraphuvasak was 0.013s behind in second, with Bilinski third.
Group B
The next set of 15 made their way out on track immediately at the green light with 1:38.613 the time to beat for pole.
Noah Stromsted was quickest after the first set of laps on a 1:38.647, just 0.014s ahead of PREMA’s Noel Leon with Theophile Nael in P3.
Mari Boya then went to P1 but was quickly beaten by Charlie Wurz and then Tuukka Taponen, who was on provisional pole with a 1:38.502s, as Martinius Stenshorne went 0.058s behind in P2.
The Hitech TGR driver was the only member of the field not able to push on for a third lap and there were several improvements, before Benavides took a second pole of the season with a 1:38.120s.
Leon was second in the group ahead of Nikola Tsolov, and Matias Zagazeta, as Taponen and Stenshorne slipped to fifth and sixth respectively.
Jordan's Track Talk 
Leave a comment