De Marco quickest at end of Monza practice

Date published : 21 May 2010 - 13:53:00

Formula 2 news De Marco quickest at end of Monza practice21 May 2010 / Results / PhotosFollowing two half-hour practice sessions at Monza on Friday morning, Italy's Nicola de Marco set the best time in his home country with a 1:41.982 lap. The 19-year-old leads the way heading into first qualifying after edging out Jolyon Palmer and Benjamin Bailly. However, the session came to an abrupt end for Sergey Afanasiev. Having finished in the top three on the morning timesheets, Afanasiev was seventh in the afternoon although the Russian's second practice session of the day ended with a heavy accident on the exit of the Ascari Chicane, where Ajith Kumar had crashed earlier on. Having run wide and clipped the gravel, Afanasiev's car was ricocheted back across the track, finally coming to rest in the middle of the road to force red flags and a premature end to the period by several seconds. India's Armaan Ebrahim and Austrian championship leader Philipp Eng made the top five although the top eleven consisted of as many different nationalities, one of which was Lithuanian as Kazim Vasiliauskas fell from P1 in the morning to P8 in the afternoon. A number of drivers judged their braking points incorrectly and subsequently overshot the Rettifilo Chicane, Turn 1; Britain's Jack Clark was shown the black and white diagonal flag for unsportsmanlike behaviour, having done so several times.Qualifying for Saturday's Race 1 will start at 4:15pm local time (BST +1)