Another brilliant podium with Laurens Van Hoepen
The FIA Formula 2 Championship kicked off the Baku weekend with the Sprint Race and the first of two scheduled Feature Races. In the opening race, held on the fast Azerbaijani street circuit, Trident Motorsport secured another important podium with Laurens Van Hoepen, finishing second after a highly competitive race. John Bennett, meanwhile, finished tenth after a comeback from the back of the grid. In the first of the Feature Races, however, both drivers were involved in a multiple collision.
The Sprint Race result gives the Milan-based team, with its headquarters in Ossona, its seventh podium finish of the season.
In the Sprint Race, Van Hoepen, ninth in the first qualifying session, started from second place thanks to the top ten grid inversion. Bennett, on his side, started from fifteenth place.
When the lights went out, Van Hoepen lost a position, dropping to third, while Bennett was involved in a collision on the second corner, dropping him to the back of the order. The British driver also suffered slight damage to the floorboard extractor but was able to continue.
The safety car was deployed on the first lap, and the race restarted on lap four with Van Hoepen in third. The twenty-one-year-old Dutchman maintained a steady pace, while Bennett began a gradual climb, up to seventeenth place by lap seven. Van Hoepen continued to stay in contact with the leading group and, on lap ten, capitalized on a mistake by a rival to complete a pass that allowed him to move into second place. In the middle of the race, the Trident Motorsport driver consolidated his second place, while Bennett continued to gain positions within the group. The twenty-three-year-old Briton climbed to fifteenth, continuing his undaunted comeback.
On lap eighteen, a new neutralization brought the field back together. The restart occurred on the twenty-first and final lap, setting up a tense finale. An accident at the first corner involved a number of drivers, allowing Bennett to gain several positions and move up to tenth. Van Hoepen, however, held onto second place until the checkered flag, thus securing his second podium in the last three Sprint Races. Bennett finished tenth, just seconds behind the winner, at the end of a race made difficult by the initial contact.
The start of the first Feature Race was smooth, with Laurens Van Hoepen maintaining ninth place at the lights, while John Bennett moved up to fourteenth. In the early stages of the race, the intervention of the safety car forced almost all the drivers to pit, reshuffling the field. John Bennett rejoined the race at the restart from twelfth place, with his sister car in his exhausts.
A few meters after the restart, which took place on lap 12, both Trident Motorsport drivers were involved in a multiple collision that led to the interruption of the Feature Race and their retirement.
Trident Motorsport can therefore look forward to tomorrow's Feature Race with confidence, strengthened by Van Hoepen's podium finish in the Sprint Race and the feedback gathered on the cars' performance on the Azerbaijan track.
Giacomo Ricci: “We're pleased with Laurens Van Hoepen's second-place finish, which saw him drive a very solid Sprint Race. After a less than perfect start, the Dutch driver managed to recover second place by seizing an opportunity and then defended it well until the checkered flag. John Bennett had a much more difficult race after the initial contact, but he responded with a strong comeback from the back of the pack to tenth place. In the first Feature Race, however, our drivers were innocently involved in the multiple collision that led to the race being stopped. We will now analyze the data collected from the two races to best prepare for tomorrow's Feature Race with the goal of being competitive again.”