Invicta Racing will start from the front row of the Monaco Sprint Race grid after a fiercely competitive qualifying session.
Free Practice
Rain fell ahead of the weekend’s only practice session on Thursday, making the ever-present Monaco barriers even more intimidating. With thunder and lightning on the horizon, wet conditions persisted throughout the session.
Owing to the conditions, there was little lap time improvement over the course of the session, leaving Kush in 11th on a 1:41.771 and Gabriel 18th with a best lap of a 1:44.935.
Qualifying
In Friday's unique split-session qualifying, two groups of 11 drivers took to the track in 16-minute sessions. Gabriel drove in Group A while Kush took part in the second part of qualifying for Group B drivers.
Gabriel’s opening gambit was good enough for second, but times tumbled rapidly and by the end of the first runs he had fallen down the order to sixth. Having glanced the barrier on his penultimate run, and unable to improve on his final effort, he finished Group A qualifying in fifth with a 1:21.670.
Kush in Group B followed shortly after. The second session was disrupted by an early red flag, but the drivers were quickly back on track. With two minutes remaining, Kush went fastest of all in Sector 1 with his final time (1:21.988) good enough for eighth in Group B.
With times from both sessions combined, Gabriel will line up ninth for Sunday’s Feature Race – and launch from second in the Sprint Race on Saturday – while Kush will start both races from 16th.
FREE PRACTICE:
- Gabriel Bortoleto: P18, 1:44.935
- Kush Maini: P11, 1:41.771
QUALIFYING:
- Gabriel Bortoleto: P09, 1:21.670
- Kush Maini: P16, 1:21.988
GABRIEL BORTOLETO: "A tough day, but that was all we could do in qualifying. We could have been in the top three in Group A, but I don't think we could've done much more than that. We'll move on and work on the races now. We've been able to fight for pole every single round so far and this is the first time we couldn't. It's a long season so it was going to happen at some point. I know it's Monaco, but anything can happen, so let's go for it."
KUSH MAINI: "It was a difficult day. A tough day at the office. There's still a long weekend ahead so there are still opportunities for us. It's tough to pass here, but anything is possible in the feature race, so we'll keep pushing."
