De Palo second in Race 2 at Hockenheim. Just - 4 points behind the championship leader

The second race that closed the Formula Regional European by Alpine weekend at Hockenheim saw Matteo De Palo and the Trident team secure yet another podium finish this season. The Roman driver started from the front row, in second position, and kept that place until the race was stopped three minutes before the end due to rain. The race had a couple of safety-car interruptions, making it difficult for De Palo to attack the leader Deligny because of the low track temperature (10 degrees), which made it hard to keep the tyres warm. With this strong result, De Palo is now only 4 points behind championship leader, Slater. Everything will be decided at Monza, the final round of the calendar, on the weekend of October 26th.

Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi and Ruiqi Liu were very unlucky. Both were involved in another driver’s mistake at the start. Liu was pushed into the barriers and had to retire, while Bhirombhakdi’s car was damaged and he finished 21st.

Matteo De Palo: “It was a good day. The start wasn’t easy because it started raining just before, so it was a bit tricky to get going. I think I managed the situation well together with Deligny. We pulled away from the rest of the group straight away. After one or two laps we started to push, but there weren’t many chances. The safety-car came in and stayed for a lot of laps, so it took time to warm up the tyres again. When I was starting to get closer to Deligny, unfortunately another safety-car came out, and then the race was stopped because of the rain. Now we go to Monza very close to Slater in the points and we’ll try our best to win”.

Ruiqi Liu: “It started raining on the formation lap. The start was actually quite good, I gained a lot of positions, but then something happened in Turn 1. A car drove into me and I had no chance to brake or avoid it. I took a massive hit and ended up in the wall. So, I had a really good start but it was a real shame to end the race this way. As always, thanks to the team. Honestly, there was not much I could do this time".