Following 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)
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| Formula 2: Italy 2010 | |
|---|---|
| 24 May '10 | Photos: Sunday at Monza |
| 23 May '10 | Palmer also the best on Sunday afternoon |
| 22 May '10 | Palmer takes second pole of the weekend |
| 22 May '10 | Photos: Saturday at Monza |
| 22 May '10 | Palmer wins exciting first race at Monza |
| Nicola de Marco | |
| 18 Sep '10 | First pole of the season for De Marco |
| 24 Aug '10 | De Marco doubting F1 Superlicence this year |
| 31 Jul '10 | De Marco takes maiden win at Brno |
| 28 Jul '10 | De Marco hoping for more of the same at Brno |
| 21 May '10 | De Marco quickest at end of Monza practice |
| Formula 2 | |
| 27 Mar | Former Champion Stoneman to join F2 test |
| 13 Jan | Video: 2012 Formula 2 car revealed in Birmingham |
| 24 Dec '11 | Video: Formula 2 season highlights |
| 15 Dec '11 | Bortolotti: DTM would be a great option |
| 7 Dec '11 | Calendar confirmed for 2012 F2 campaign |
| Nicola de Marco | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| More Nicola de Marco photos | |||
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