Ugochukwu’s confidence continues to grow after finishing fastest in Monza Practice

Ugo Ugochukwu says his confidence, which was already high coming into the final round, has gotten even “stronger” after he topped the timesheets of this weekend’s Monza Free Practice.

The PREMA Racing driver was in strong form throughout the 45-minute outing, leading the way early on before his rivals improved to get ahead of him.

PRACTICE: Ugochukwu sets the pace for PREMA Racing in Monza

However, after he and the majority of the field opted to swap their carry-over Medium tyres from Budapest to the Softs they will run this weekend, Ugochukwu was back fighting at the top of the field.

The American’s first lap put him in the top five, before a second effort of a 1:38.473 saw him rocket to the top of the timesheets, beating Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov in second place by 0.128s.

“It was a pretty good session,” Ugochukwu said following a team debrief. “The pace is really good, the car is feeling good, and I managed to get in a few good laps, and we ended up on top.

"So it gives us a lot of confidence going into quali. We will see what we can do, the slipstream will be important but ideally, we have to get good track position and then we go for pole.”

When asked whether those two push laps on the Soft tyre had given him and PREMA a good enough reading going into Qualifying, Ugochukwu explained how the nature of the track helps them know what they need to do for the Pole Position shootout.

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“There are long straights around here, so you can afford a bit more push laps in a row compared to other tracks,” he said.

“But in quali, the track is going to ramp up a bit and it’s going to be a bit hotter. So we will see how the tyres last. But we definitely got a good indication of where the tyres and the car is going to be.”

Given his form in recent rounds – achieving two podiums in the Spa-Francorchamps and Budapest Sprint Races – Ugochukwu came to Monza full of belief.

The McLaren-backed driver also won at the Italian venue in 2024, and that, alongside his pace-setting form in Free Practice means he is brimming with confidence in himself and the car heading into Qualifying.

“To be honest, when you end up on top, everything is pretty good, so you don’t want to change too much on the car ahead of Qualifying,” he continued.

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“Maybe there will be some fine tuning into quali, but definitely not big steps with the car. But I am definitely confident. I’ve got quite a bit of experience at this track the last few years, and I have always been quite quick around here to be honest.

“I already had a lot of confidence coming into the weekend and it’s even stronger now after FP. Obviously around here you can win from anywhere but the first step is quali and then we will see what we can do in the races.”