De Palo retains championship lead after a seventh-place finish in Race 2 at Montmeló

A seventh-place finish holds Matteo De Palo first in the championship, albeit tied with rival Freddie Slater at 226 points. The roman’s second race at Montmelò was impacted by the damp track conditions in Qualifying 2. Third in his group, equivalent to the third row, De Palo was still ahead of Slater, who was seventh on the grid. In the early stages of the race, the Italian driver was overtaken by his English rival, but he maintained seventh place up to the finish. Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi and Ruiqi Liu also experienced a disappointing qualifying performance, forced to start from the back and finishing 23rd and 15th, respectively.

Matteo De Palo: “It wasn’t a fully positive day. In qualifying we struggled a lot to find the right speed in wet conditions. In the race we started behind the safety-car, so I didn’t have many chances to get a good start and gain positions. It wasn’t one of my best races, but in the end we still brought home a lot of points. We could have scored more, but we’re still in a good position in the championship”. 

Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi: “After a really tough qualifying, I didn’t expect much from the race. I just tried to focus on the pace and do the best I could from where I was starting. It’s a big shame, especially considering how good yesterday was, but I’ll take the positives from this weekend. I’m really confident I’ll keep improving from here. I learned a lot today in particular, so I’m happy to finish a tough race, because there’s a lot to take away from it”.

Ruiqi Liu: “It was a tough day, especially this morning in the wet, which was really hard for us. I had no pace at all, so starting in the mid-pack again didn’t give me many chances to overtake. The pace today was worse than yesterday because of the conditions, and I think the result I got is pretty much the best we could have done. There’s definitely more potential in qualifying, because I made a mistake and we could have started a bit further ahead. But it is what it is, and now we just focus on the next one”.