Misano, Trident on the podium again with De Palo third in Race 2
The first round of the Regional European by Alpine in Misano ended with another great performance by the Trident team. Matteo De Palo, after the superb victory on Saturday in Race 1 which meant the first success of Maurizio Salvadori’s team in the series, climbed onto the podium again in race 2.
Having obtained the second time in Group A in qualifying 2, De Palo started from the second row and immediately held on to third place. The Italian driver managed the three safety car situations that developed during the race in the best possible way and controlled Enzo Deligny, who had been pressing him for a long time. A great demonstration of strength and intelligence by De Palo, who now lies second in the championship’s overall standings with 40 points, only three units behind the leader, and winner of Race 2, Evan Giltaire.
The good news for Trident didn’t end there, as Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi, crossed the finish line in eighth position after a solid race started in row five, taking the first points of his career in the Regional European by Alpine where he debuted in 2024.
Ruiqi Liu paid for an unlucky qualifying that saw him start from the tenth row, but thanks to a nice string of overtaking moves, he finished in 13th position.
The next round is scheduled for May 18th in the Belgian circuit of Spa-Francorchamps.
Matteo De Palo: “It’s been a fantastic weekend, which has validated most of the work we’ve done during the off-season. Yesterday was a special day for me, as I secured my first win in the championship: a huge satisfaction. This morning, everything was going really well. We were on pole with more than a three-tenths advantage until the last lap of qualifying, a result that could have changed the whole race. But Giltaire put in a great lap and managed to pass me at the end. It happens, it's part of the game. Third place isn’t bad. In the race, we did what we needed to do: we brought home points without taking unnecessary risks. We’re happy and feeling very confident looking ahead to Spa. We’re ready.”
Ruiqi Liu: “First of all, congratulations to Matteo for his win and podium finish. I’m truly happy for him, it was well deserved from his side. Nandhavud also showed a really strong pace in both qualifying and the race. As for me, it wasn’t my best qualifying – in truth, it was the worst I’ve had – but the race went really well, with a good pace and managing things well, especially overtaking. I’ll keep working and I definitely need to improve my qualifying performance ahead of Spa”.
Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi: “In the end, I managed to finish P8 and score my first points of the season in the opening round of the championship. There’s still a lot of work to do, but we’ve taken some positives from yesterday and also from the tests. We still have a long journey ahead, but we’ll keep working as hard as possible to improve and achieve even better results.”