De Palo wraps up the season at Monza with a strong second place in Race 2
The 2025 season of the Formula Regional European by Alpine championship ended with a strong second place for Matteo De Palo in Race 2 at Monza. The Roman driver finished second in the overall standings, the best result in the category for Maurizio Salvadori's team. Starting from the front row with the second fastest time overall (first in Group B) De Palo maintained second place throughout the race behind Freddie Slater, the new champion, crowned in Race 1.
De Palo had an excellent season, collecting four wins, three poles, a total of eleven podium finishes, and eighteen positive results in twenty races. Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi, starting 15th, finished 16th, the same position he holds in the overall standings. Ruiqi Liu, starting 16th, recovered to 12th place. He finished the year with 3 points and 20th in the championship.
Matteo De Palo: “It was a positive day. In qualifying I took the pole position in my group, so I started 2nd in Race 2. From the beginning I was always close to Slater, but it was really difficult to drive in the dirty air, and strangely, with the slipstream here in Monza, I couldn’t get closer on the straights. There was a moment when I was about to attack him, but then the safety-car came out and the race finished under the safety-car, so I didn’t have a chance to try. Overall, it was a very positive weekend. I’m happy with the season: we did a great job and, together with the team, we maximized everything we could. Finishing on the podium here in Monza is always special. Maybe the win could have been possible today without the safety-car, but we didn’t have much luck this weekend, and now the focus is already on next year and Formula 3 with Trident”.
Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi: “It’s been a tough one, to be honest, especially after such promising moments at the start of the weekend. At the beginning of the season, I showed strong potential and good pace, but for one reason or another, sometimes just bad luck, things didn’t always go our way. Still, I really want to thank the team and everyone involved for their incredible support throughout the year, and for giving me an opportunity I never even thought about at first. From the bottom of my heart, thanks to Trident and everyone in the team for all this”.
Ruiqi Liu: “Today has been really tough, starting from qualifying. There were a lot of ups and downs: yesterday we were fighting for the top positions, and today we were struggling just to be P18. From there, I had a great start, but the pace just wasn’t the same as yesterday. There was a lot of defending and overtaking, I gained and lost positions, but overall I think it’s still a positive result because I managed to score points. It’s a pretty good way to end the season, even if I know I still have a lot of margin to improve. Thanks to Trident for these two and a half years. It’s been really enjoyable, and I’ve seen them as a family for a long time already”.