PRACTICE: Ugochukwu sets the pace for PREMA Racing in Monza

Ugo Ugochukwu was the one to beat in the final Practice 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 León.

The session got underway with Théophile Nael setting a 1:41.780, putting him over a tenth ahead of home favourite Brando Badoer.

But then came the Italian’s teammates Ugochukwu and León, 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 León’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 Câmara 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 they will use for the rest of the weekend.

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 León in third.

Voisin wound up fourth ahead of Nael, with Matías Zagazeta sixth, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and Mari Boya in seventh and eighth for Campos Racing. Noah Stromsted was ninth as Louis Sharp rounded out the top 10.

Qualifying is set to start at 15:00 with the odd-numbered drivers in Group A, with the even-numbered cars scheduled to follow at 15:20 in Group B.