Auto GP Monza, practice 1: Visoiu on top

The first free practice session of the 2013 Auto GP was successfully completed today at Monza and while the series' brand-new racecar showed great reliability, the lap times, although on old tires, were already trimmed by 0.8 second compared to 2012. The improvement has so far matched the expectations, while more progress is expected as the weekend progresses.

Topping the charts was 17-year-old Romanian racer Robert Visoiu, lined-up by Ghinzani Motorsport, who scored 1:37.439 and logged 24 laps. Several drivers aimed at putting more laps under their belt including Italian Andrea Roda, who ended up just 0.174 adrift on the Virtuosi UK car and ran 25 laps.

The all-Japanese line-up of Euronova featuring Yoshitaka Kuroda and Kimiya Sato ended up respectively in 4th and 5th, while Zele Racing's Luciano Bacheta rounded out the top-5 at his first time on-track with the Auto GP car.

His new team-mate Narain Karthikeyan, also making his series debut, took 8th place, 8 tenths of a second off Visoiu's lead. He was edged by the Italian pair of Vittorio Ghirelli (Super Nova) and Riccardo Agostini (MP Motorsport).