De Palo, sixth in Zandvoort’s Race 1, maintains the championship lead

The third round of the Formula Regional European by Alpine championship visited the Dutch circuit of Zandvoort. Cold and rain greeted the teams and the morning's Qualifying 1 session was particularly complicated, with the asphalt initially wet, then dry. 

In these conditions, Matteo De Palo took the third time in Group A, thus earning the third row for Race 1, while things went worse for Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi and Ruiqi Liu, who shared the ninth row. 

Zandvoort is an old-style circuit, very narrow, where it is practically impossible to overtake. De Palo maintained the sixth starting position up to the chequered flag, thus scoring those points that allow him to remain the championship leader with a 6-point advantage over the second in the standings. Bhirombhakdi and Liu ran a regular race, finishing respectively in 16th and 19th position.

Matteo De Palo: “It wasn’t one of our best days. Qualifying was tough, with a wet track but dry tyres, yet in the end we did a good job securing third in our group and sixth overall. As for the race, we know overtaking is very difficult here at Zandvoort. At the start, there was a small chance to pass the car ahead, but it was really tough and I couldn’t make it happen. For the rest of the race, it was just about managing the speed. We scored good points again without making any mistakes, so we’re happy about that”.

Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi: “It wasn’t the day I was hoping for, especially considering the strong pace we had over the past two days. In qualifying, we chose the wet tyres while the others decided to go with the slicks, and unfortunately it didn’t pay off as the track dried up. It was far from ideal as I was on wets the whole time and only managed to secure P9 in my group, which meant starting P18 on the grid. Moving on to the race, there’s not much to add: the speed was definitely there. The start could have been better, but overall it wasn’t too bad. Of course, overtaking on this track is very difficult. I remain confident, and I believe we can achieve a strong result tomorrow in qualifying and in the race”.

Ruiqi Liu: “In qualifying, we were on slick tyres, but two red flags in only 15 minutes didn’t help us warm up the tyres at all. After the first red flag, it even started to drizzle a little. In the end, we only had one last push, and I managed to get some grip in the final sector, but it was too late. There was just no grip in the first two sectors, where the tyres should have been warmed up. It’s a bit of a shame. As for the race, I had a difficult race. Now the focus is fully on tomorrow”.