Monza GP2: Gasly and Markelov set practice pace, both suffer car problems

The practice session of the championship's final European venue was an eventful one, as the VSC was brought out three times.

It was first deployed for Jimmy Eriksson's car coming to a halt on the exit of the first chicane, leaving the Swede without a laptime in the session.

Championship leader Pierre Gasly took first from Artem Markelov at around 15 minutes into the session, but the cars of both drivers soon slowed down at the same time just a few metres away from each other.

The third and longest VSC stint came with 13 minutes to go after Philo Paz Armand spun while accelerating from the second Lesmo corner, breaking both his front and rear wing.

Despite not taking part after pulling over, Gasly's time of 1m31.990s remained the benchmark, with Markelov second and the other Prema of Antonio Giovinazzi taking third.

Campos driver Mitch Evans was fourth, with Jordan King ending up more than half a second off the pace in fifth.

Rookie trio Oliver Rowland, Luca Ghiotto and Marvin Kirchhofer completed the top eight, followed by Rapax's Arthur Pic and DAMS driver Alex Lynn.

Title contender Sergey Sirotkin ended up 11th, more than eight tenths slower than Gasly.

Practice results

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	21	Pierre Gasly	Prema Powerteam	1'31.990
2	10	Artem Markelov	RUSSIAN TIME	1'32.142	0.152
3	20	Antonio Giovinazzi	Prema Powerteam	1'32.225	0.235
4	7	Mitch Evans	Campos Racing	1'32.413	0.423
5	4	Jordan King	Racing Engineering	1'32.514	0.524
6	22	Oliver Rowland	MP Motorsport	1'32.604	0.614
7	15	Luca Ghiotto	Trident	1'32.666	0.676
8	19	Marvin Kirchhofer	Carlin	1'32.718	0.728
9	12	Arthur Pic	Rapax	1'32.772	0.782
10	5	Alex Lynn	DAMS	1'32.794	0.804
11	2	Sergey Sirotkin	ART Grand Prix	1'32.809	0.819
12	6	Nicholas Latifi	DAMS	1'32.939	0.949
13	3	Norman Nato	Racing Engineering	1'33.068	1.078
14	1	Nobuharu Matsushita	ART Grand Prix	1'33.121	1.131
15	8	Sean Gelael	Campos Racing	1'33.340	1.350
16	18	Sergio Canamasas	Carlin	1'33.341	1.351
17	11	Gustav Malja	Rapax	1'33.421	1.431
18	24	Nabil Jeffri	Arden International	1'33.502	1.512
19	9	Raffaele Marciello	RUSSIAN TIME	1'33.525	1.535
20	23	Daniel de Jong	MP Motorsport	1'33.942	1.952
21	14	Philo Paz Armand	Trident	1'34.021	2.031
22	25	Jimmy Eriksson	Arden International