QUALIFYING: Benavides beats Ugochukwu to pole with last gasp attempt in Monza

Brad Benavides took his second Aramco Pole Position Award of the season with a superb final lap in Qualifying, the AIX Racing driver putting in a stunning 1:38.120s to take top spot in Monza.

Running in Group B, the American beat PREMA Racing’s Noel León to top spot in the second group P1 by 0.262s, with Ugo Ugochukwu, who was fastest in Group A on a 1:38.613, set to join Benavides on the front row.

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 Câmara’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, Câmara’s time was deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 5.

Giusti then completed his lap to go to P4 ahead of his MP Motorsport teammate, while Voisin wound up 10th in the group.

This left 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 ahead of Giusti, Tramnitz and Laurens van Hoepen in P6.

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 León with Théophile 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.

León was second in the group ahead of Nikola Tsolov, and Matías Zagazeta, as Taponen and Stenshorne slipped to fifth and sixth respectively.

This means van Hoepen is set to start from reverse grid pole with Stenshorne joining him on the front row for Saturday’s Sprint Race, which is scheduled to get underway at Monza 09:15 local time.