De Palo unlucky, Bhirombhakdi scores points in Race 2 at the Red Bull Ring
It was an unlucky Sunday for Matteo De Palo. After dominating Saturday with pole position in Qualifying 1 and a win in Race 1, the Roman driver endured a difficult second qualifying session, and fell victim of arival’s foul maneuver at the start of Sunday's race. This incident ultimately forced De Palo to retire, resulting in him losing first place in the championship. For the Trident team, good news came from Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi, who returned to the top 10 with a strong ninth-place finish in Race 2, while Ruiqi Liu, after an excellent start, lacked the pace to make further progress and finished 19th.
Matteo De Palo: “Saturday went well with pole position and the win in the first race. Unfortunately, things went completely the opposite way in the second qualifying and the second race. I started only from the sixth row after a difficult session, and at the start I was pushed off on the straight by another driver, who was penalized by the stewards with a five-place grid drop for the next event in Montmeló. It’s a real shame, because then I had to come into the pits, lost time, and finished outside the points for the first time this year. But we still have three rounds, six races, to turn things around”.
Ruiqi Liu: “We’ve finished our weekend here at the Red Bull Ring. On day two, we definitely needed a bit more pace in qualifying. I don’t know if it was the conditions or something else, but I just struggled a lot with grip. I had a good start in the race and a decent pace in qualifying, in terms of track position, not the final result. At the start, I was about to gain maybe nine positions in two corners, but after that I dropped back a bit. We need to find more pace and understand what the problem is”.
Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi: “After a very difficult day yesterday, both the team and I made a good step forward. Qualifying went better and the race wasn’t too bad. I wish I could have held on to P8 in the last two laps, but I lost it. Still, I finished P9 and scored some points. I’m really happy with how resilient I was this weekend after such a tough one. It feels good to be back in the points. I’ll keep pushing hard and hopefully get an even better result in Barcelona”.