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Monza GP2: Pierre Gasly tops practice despite stopping on track

GP2 championship leader Pierre Gasly topped practice at Monza despite parking on track mid-way through the session along with second-fastest man Artem Markelov

Both Gasly's Prema car and Markelov's Russian Time machine ground to a halt on the run down to the Parabolica within moments of each other, seemingly due to running out of fuel.

Red Bull Formula 1 driver Gasly was first to hit trouble and had to stop on the circuit, while Markelov managed to make it to run-off area.

Before then, Gasly had set the 1m31.990s that stood as the best of the morning, 0.152 seconds ahead of Markelov.

After winning both races at Spa, Prema started the Monza weekend with two cars in the top three - Antonio Giovinazzi taking third.

Last year's Monza sprint race winner Mitch Evans showed encouraging form in fourth.

Fifth-placed Jordan King had a near-miss at the start of the session when he didn't notice the fast-approaching Gustav Malja on a flying lap while weaving down the back straight to warm his tyres. Contact was averted but Malja immediately gestured angrily at King.

The need to retrieve Gasly and Markelov's cars caused one of three virtual safety cars during the session.

The first occurred when Jimmy Eriksson's Arden entry stopped on track at the first chicane before he could set a time, and the other when Philo Paz Armand crashed on the exit of the Lesmos.

Nabil Jeffri had a spin at the same spot just as Gasly and Markelov were parking, but kept his car out of the barriers.

PRACTICE TIMES:

Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Pierre Gasly Prema Racing 1m31.990s - 9
2 Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1m32.142s 0.152s 9
3 Antonio Giovinazzi Prema Racing 1m32.225s 0.235s 18
4 Mitch Evans Pertamina Campos Racing 1m32.413s 0.423s 16
5 Jordan King Racing Engineering 1m32.514s 0.524s 18
6 Oliver Rowland MP Motorsport 1m32.604s 0.614s 18
7 Luca Ghiotto Trident 1m32.666s 0.676s 19
8 Marvin Kirchhofer Carlin 1m32.718s 0.728s 16
9 Arthur Pic Rapax 1m32.772s 0.782s 18
10 Alex Lynn DAMS 1m32.794s 0.804s 18
11 Sergey Sirotkin ART Grand Prix 1m32.809s 0.819s 17
12 Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1m32.939s 0.949s 19
13 Norman Nato Racing Engineering 1m33.068s 1.078s 18
14 Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1m33.121s 1.131s 18
15 Sean Gelael Pertamina Campos Racing 1m33.340s 1.350s 17
16 Sergio Canamasas Carlin 1m33.341s 1.351s 14
17 Gustav Malja Rapax 1m33.421s 1.431s 20
18 Nabil Jeffri Arden International 1m33.502s 1.512s 19
19 Raffaele Marciello RUSSIAN TIME 1m33.525s 1.535s 16
20 Daniel de Jong MP Motorsport 1m33.942s 1.952s 18
21 Philo Paz Armand Trident 1m34.021s 2.031s 13
22 Jimmy Eriksson Arden International - - 2

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