LP Racing’s Carlo Tamburini and Leonardo Gorini headed a Maserati one-two in Friday’s Fanatec GT2 European Series Powered by Pirelli Free Practice session at Monza, while team-mate Philippe Prette topped the Am runners.
The all-Italian #1 Maserati GT2 crew went quickest of all with a 1:45.979s effort in the closing stages of the day’s first hour-long outing in Italy, Tamburini’s time good enough to put the Pro-Am title-contenders 0.340s clear of the similar #67 DINAMIC Motorsport entry.
The latter made an exciting start to its GT2 debut with second overall thanks to Roberto Pampanini and Mauro Calamia, with third place occupied by the Pro-Am title leaders Reinhard Kofler and Martin Koch of Team MZR (#812 KTM X-BOW GT2).
A late surge up the time sheets came from the #18 LP Racing Audi R8 LMS GT2 duo of Pierre Kaffer and Phillipe Chatelet in fourth, followed closely by Simon Birch and Thomas Andersen in the #80 Razoon - More Than Racing KTM rounding out the top five.
Just 1.2s covered the top 10 runners in a closely-fought session, only briefly interrupted by a red flag to retrieve the #88 LP Racing Audi from the gravel. Prette was sixth overall to top the Am class in the #2 LP Racing Maserati, ahead of a trio of Mercedes-AMG GT2 crews.
Mauro and Benjamin Ricci commanded the first, ahead of Akkodis ASP team-mates Gilles Vannelet and Jean-Luc Beaubelique, with the top 10 rounded out by Stéphane Perrin and Jörg Viebahn in the #888 NM Racing Mercedes and Alexandre Leroy in the #24 TFT Racing Maserati.
Next up for the Fanatec GT2 field is Pre-Qualifying from 12:30, giving drivers a further hour to prepare for the main Qualifying session at 16:30.