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Alexander Dunne Sets the Pace in Monza Practice Before Late Red Flag
Rodin Motorsport driver Alexander Dunne led the opening FIA Formula 2 practice session at Monza, outpacing Oliver Goethe as a late red flag ended running prematurely.
By Michael de Vries - 2026-09-05T01:15:39.775Z - 2 min read
Alexander Dunne set the benchmark during the opening FIA Formula 2 practice session at Monza, steering his Rodin Motorsport machine to the top of the timing screens with a lap time of 1 minute, 31.957 seconds. The Irish driver maintained a strong presence near the front of the field throughout the morning session before establishing his definitive lead time.
Following a slow start to the weekend's track activity, AIX Racing driver Emerson Fittipaldi initially recorded the first benchmark time with a 1:34.793. As track evolution improved grip levels, lap times tumbled rapidly across the grid. Campos Racing driver Noel León briefly surged to the top with a 1:32.715, holding an advantage of three-tenths over Rodin Motorsport's Martinius Stenshorne before the leaderboard shifted again.
Dunne responded by lowering the reference time to 1:32.297, before MP Motorsport competitor Oliver Goethe briefly captured first position with a 1:32.127. Dunne quickly reclaimed the top spot by posting the session's fastest lap of 1:31.957, securing his position at the summit of the timing classification as teams prepared for the final phase of practice running.
Competitive preparations were cut short with seventeen minutes remaining on the clock when a red flag halted the session. Colton Herta suffered a crash exiting Turn 7 after clipping the gravel on corner exit, which pitched his Hitech entry into the inside barrier. Herta emerged from the car unaided, but marshals required the remaining time to clear the stranded vehicle and repair the barrier.
Race control elected not to restart the session, leaving the clock to run out and cementing Dunne's earlier lap as the quickest of the morning. Goethe finished the session in second position, with Nico Varrone rounding out the top three for his respective squad. Nikola Tsolov claimed fourth ahead of Roman Bilinski, while Joshua Duerksen, Martinius Stenshorne, Noel León, Rafael Camara, and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak completed the top ten positions as teams turned their attention to the afternoon qualifying session scheduled for 14:55 local time.