John Bennett takes a good fourth place
The Feature Race, which concluded the tenth round of the FIA Formula 2 Championship season, held at the historic Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, yielded a positive performance by Trident Motorsport in front of their home crowd. John Bennett finished fourth after a solid and hard-fought race, while Laurens Van Hoepen finished twelfth after a solid comeback.
Starting from tenth on the grid, Bennett faced the first part of the race on SuperSoft tyres. Van Hoepen, fifteenth on the grid, adopted the same strategy, aiming to exploit the softer compounds' performance in the early stages of the race.
At the lights went out, Bennett made an excellent start, immediately gaining a position to move into ninth place. Van Hoepen also got off to a positive start, quickly making up two positions, moving up to thirteenth.
In the following laps, Bennett maintained a steady pace in ninth, while Van Hoepen continued to hover just outside the top ten, occupying twelfth place from lap two. The situation remained stable until the start of the pit stop sequence.
On lap seven, with the first pit stops, Bennett temporarily moved up to eighth, while Van Hoepen gained another position to eleventh. Bennett then pitted at the end of lap eight, followed by Van Hoepen on the following lap. Both drivers fitted the Soft tyres, thus avoiding the mandatory pit stop.
Trident Motorsport's strategy allowed the two drivers to tackle the second half of the race on fresher tyres, while waiting for the positions to stabilize after all their rivals had completed their pit stops.
But on lap 12, race officials had to neutralize the race with the deployment of the Safety Car, needed to rescue a car stuck in the sand on the Parabolica escape road. This neutralization brought the group back together and allowed them to finalize their strategies.
After the pit stops, Bennett found himself in fifth place, while Van Hoepen occupied fifteenth place. At the restart on lap 17, the twenty-two-year-old Briton authoritatively maintained fifth place through the first chicane, attempting to take advantage of the duel ahead of him to gain further ground. Van Hoepen, on his side, began a gradual comeback, gaining ground on the group and exploiting overtaking opportunities.
On lap 21, the twenty-one-year-old Dutchman completed an important overtaking move, moving up to thirteenth. Bennett remained in fifth place, before making a further step forward on lap 24, when he took fourth place.
The British driver was therefore called upon to defend himself intensely. In the final laps, Bennett had to contain the attacks from behind, but managed to hold onto fourth place until the checkered flag thanks to an extremely solid performance. The British driver leaves Monza with a remarkable twenty points to his name.
Van Hoepen, meanwhile, continued to battle in the midfield. On lap 29, he held thirteenth place, only to benefit from a penalty handed down to an opponent on the final lap. The Dutchman thus finished the Feature Race in twelfth place.
The FIA Formula 2 Championship will return to action next weekend for the eleventh round of the season. The championship will stop in Spain at the Madring, Madrid's new street circuit, where Trident Motorsport will attempt to continue its winning streak.
Giacomo Ricci: “We concluded our home round with a positive performance, culminating in fourth-place finish for John Bennett, who ran a solid race, managing the various phases of the race well and defending his position with great determination in the finale. Laurens Van Hoepen staged a comeback race, making up several positions in the second half of the race. Overall, we showed good pace and gathered important information, which we will analyze ahead of the next round at the Madring. It will be a new track for everyone, and we'll need to be ready to make the most of every session of the weekend.”