Gabriele Mini tops disrupted Formula 3 practice in Monaco

Gabriele Mini (pictured) topped the only practice session in Monaco. Credit: Eric Alonso - Getty Images)

Prema Racing's Gabriele Mini topped a red-flag and rain disrupted free practice session in Monaco on Thursday.

There were three red flags across the session before the rain fell, as Mini topped the session ahead of fellow countryman Leonardo Fornaroli of Trident. Mini's teammate Dino Beganovic was third.

This would be the start of a four day weekend, with qualifying happening on Friday and the two races on Saturday and Sunday as usual.

Fornaroli came into this round with the championship lead after taking over from British talent Luke Browning in Imola.

How free practice unfolded around Monte Carlo

Free Practice unlike usual, would commence on a Thursday, with action being spread across four days in Monte Carlo.

An extra day of action is hardly something to complain about for Formula 3 fans and with a threat of rain in the air, at 13:10 local time the session would begin.

The Formula 3 schedule for Round 4 - Monaco (UK Viewers).

Sami Meguetounif (Pictured) after his win last time out at Imola. Credit: Joe Portlock - Getty Images

There would be a driver change at Jenzer Motorsport, which would be the first change made of the 2024 season.

Peruvian Matias Zagazeta in the week suffered from appendicitis and therefore required his appendix to be removed via surgery. Therefore, he would be out of action for the weekend. In his place would be GB3 British talent James Hedley. 

Hedley, 19, currently drives for VRD racing by Arden in GB3 and has taken one of his free weekends away from the series to compete for Jenzer and to make his FIA Formula 3 debut.

As drivers headed out on track, they would be keen to learn the circuit and all its tricks, challenges and narrow walls.

In the early stages, Gabriele Mini of Prema would set the quickest lap time ahead of championship leader Fornaroli, who was second. Running would not be going for more than 10 minutes as the first red flag of the session would be introduced.

Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak would find the wall at Saint-Devote, the very famous turn 1. He would make a mistake while taking the corner and went straight on into the wall - losing his front wing. The Marshals needed to be able to move the car and the detached front wing, so the red flag was introduced by race control.

Without much of a delay, the car was cleared and the session would be resumed with 31 minutes remaining. The drivers would be frustrated as dry running could be pivotal ahead of the qualifying groups on Friday. Green flag running would not last for long.

As drivers started their build up laps, Rodin Motorsport's Callum Voisin found the same wall Inthraphuvasak found and was parked at Saint-Devote. His teammate Joseph Loake went down the run off at the same corner. However, Loake was able to turn round and continue on. Voisin was not, he was out.

With less than 25 minutes remaining, green flag running was back underway and the drivers would have been dreading any more stoppages, as with the threat of a thunderstorm, they were on borrowed time for dry running. Yello flags would however be displayed at sector 1, but thankfully, the incident was cleared.

While, the yellow flags were flying, Fornaroli was on a flying lap but he could not beat Mini's lap time His teammate improved and registered a lap time. His teammate being Sami Meguetounif - the most recent new race winner, after the Frenchman won the feature race in Imola.
















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After his lap, he spun on the approach to Saint Devote, managed to point it in the right way up the hill. However, his left rear suspension slammed into the wall of turn 1, breaking his left rear suspension, meaning a third flag in the first 25 minutes of the session.

Drivers returned to the pit lane, as the inevitable rain began to fall, which had ended hopes of any extra dry running the drivers were hoping for at the near end of the session.

Mini's time of 1:27.400 did not look like it as going to be beaten as the track was beginning to get soaked with the highly anticipated rain. Fornaroli was within a tenth of his fellow Italian driver - 0.091s to be exact. A 1:27.491 was the championship leader's best attempt.

The remaining drivers would be able to head back out to get experience of the circuit and to do some running in case of a wet qualifying or a wet race. Experience would be key on one of the trickiest circuits on the entire calendar - a lot would say the trickiest!

Debutant Hedley was sat 17th and that would be a great first result for the British driver at Jenzer. He was likely to stay there as the wet conditions meant it would be unlikely for the drivers to improve on dry lap times.

A moment for British Prema rookie Arvid Lindblad with around six minutes remaining, as the Red Bull junior went straight on at Mirabeau (turn 5). After a while of reversing and positioning the car, he was able to rejoin the track.

Another Red Bull Junior, Tim Tramnitz of MP Motorsport, went down the escape road at Saint-Devote. He was able to spin it round and rejoin. A second podium for the German rookie in the sprint race last time out at Imola. He would be aiming to build on that in the coming weekend.

The chequered flag  came out at the end of the session as drivers on flying laps could choose to complete them. Gabriele Mini would finish with the fastest lap time he set in the early stages of the session. His time of 1:27.400 was good enough to beat second place Leonardo Fornaroli by 0.091. Mini's Prema teammate Dino Beganovic was third.

Mini took pole and won the feature race in Formula 3's first visit to Monaco in 2023. He looked to be a strong favourite for good results across the weekend, if the practice times were anything to go by. However, dry running was severely hampered due to the red flag stoppages.

Sami Meguetounif was fourth, despite crashing in the session. The same situation for Callum Voisin who was fifth. All three ART drivers were in the top 10. Christian Mansell was sixth, Nikola Tsolov eighth and Laurens Van Hoepen was 10th. Piotr Wisnicki was seventh for Rodin Motorsport and the third Prema of Arvid Lindblad was ninth.

The Formula 3 weekend action would continue on Friday for the grouped qualifying to set the grid for the sprint and feature races.

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2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship: Round 4 - Monaco Practice result

1. Gabriele Mini (Italy, Prema Racing) 1:27.400
2. Leonardo Fornaroli (Italy, Trident) +0.091
3. Dino Beganovic (Sweden, Prema Racing) +1.269
4. Sami Meguetounif (France, Trident) +2.021
5. Callum Voisin (Great Britain, Rodin Motorsport) +2.339
6. Christian Mansell (Australia, ART Grand Prix) +2.351
7. Piotr Wisnicki (Poland, Rodin Motorsport) +2.5
8. Nikola Tsolov (Bulgaria, ART Grand Prix) + 2.822
9. Arvid Lindblad (Great Britain, Prema Racing) +3.032
10. Laurens Van Hoepen (Netherlands, ART Grand Prix) 3.326
11. Joshua Dufek (Austria, AIX Racing) +3.495
12. Santiago Ramos (Mexico, Trident) +3.899
13. Sebastian Montoya (Colombia, Campos Racing) +4.319
14. Martinius Stenshorne (Norway, Hitech Pulse-Eight) +4.596
15. Joseph Loake (Great Britain, Rodin Motorsport) +4.801
16. Maxwell Esterson (United States, Jenzer Motorsport) +5.523
17. James Hedley (Great Britain, Jenzer Motorsport) +5.831
18. Luke Browning (Great Britain, Hitech Pulse-Eight) +6.125
19. Nikita Bedrin (Italy, AIX Racing) +6.880
20. Charlie Wurz (Austria, Jenzer Motorsport) +7.362
21. Sophia Floersch (Germany, Van Amersfoort Racing) +8.375
22. Tommy Smith (Australia, Van Amerfoort Racing) +8.561
23. Noel Leon (Mexico, Van Amersfoort Racing) +9.615
24. Mari Boya (Spain, Campos Racing) +10.360
25. Oliver Goethe (Germany, Campos Racing) +10.653
26. Cian Shields (Great Britain, Hitech Pulse-Eight) +11.183
27. Alex Dunne (Republic of Ireland, MP Motorsport) +12.531
28. Tim Tramnitz (Germany, MP Motorsport) +13.019
29. Kacper Sztuka (Poland, MP Motorsport) +14.283
30. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak (Thailand, AIX Racing) +15.454

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - f1journal.co.uk