More valuable points scored on Azerbaijani soil

The FIA Formula 2 Championship concluded the Baku weekend with the second and final Feature Race on the fast Azerbaijani street circuit. Trident Motorsport closed the event with another strong performance from Laurens Van Hoepen, finishing fifth after a solid and hard-fought race. John Bennett, however, was forced to retire early in the race after being pushed off the track by a rival at the first braking point.

Van Hoepen started from seventh place, while Bennett started from seventeenth. When the lights went out, the twenty-one-year-old Dutchman successfully defended seventh place, while Bennett suffered an unfortunate episode at the first braking point. The twenty-three-year-old Briton was pushed off the track by a rival and ended up in the run-off area ofthe first corner, thus ending his race prematurely. Race direction subsequently neutralized the race with the deployment of the Safety Car.

At the restart on lap three, Van Hoepen immediately gained a position to sixth. The 21-year-old Dutchman then maintained a consistent pace, while in the following laps the standings began to change following the first pit stops of his rivals. On lap seven, Van Hoepen thus temporarily moved up to fifth. Shortly thereafter, the race was neutralized again by the Virtual Safety Car, allowing the drivers to manage their tires and strategies to begin to take shape. The race resumed on lap eight before another safety car.

Trident Motorsport took advantage of the race's unique course to complete its strategy: Van Hoepen made his scheduled pit stop, returning to the track after the series of pit stops in sixth place and maintaining a good pace in the group.

Once the standings had stabilized, the Dutch driver continued to remain among the top positions. On lap 15, thanks to his opponents' final pit stops, Van Hoepen moved up to fifth place, a position he then defended with great consistency in the final stages of the race.

In the final part of the Feature Race, Van Hoepen maintained a competitive pace, managing to control the opponents behind him and consolidating his fifth place. The Trident Motorsport driver then crossed the finish line in fifth place, securing another important result at the end of a particularly challenging weekend for the Milan-based team with headquarters in Ossona.

Trident Motorsport thus concluded the double-header in Baku with another top-five finish for Van Hoepen, following his second-place finish in the Sprint Race. This result allows the team to conclude a weekend marked by a new format, with a Sprint Race and two Feature Races held in just three days.

Giacomo Ricci: “We conclude the Baku weekend with another solid result thanks to Laurens Van Hoepen's fifth-place finish. It was a very unique Feature Race, conditioned by several neutralizations and a complex strategy, but Laurens managed every phase of the race well, maintaining a consistent pace. Second place in the Sprint Race and fifth place today confirm the team's competitiveness in this event. It's a shame for John Bennett, who was forced to retire early on after being pushed off the track by a rival.”