Precious points in the Catalan heat

The Feature Race that closed out the third weekend of the FIA Formula 3 Championship, held at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló, saw Trident Motorsport secure points thanks to Freddie Slater, who leaves Spain with thirteen points. Forced to start from the back, Noah Strømsted and Matteo De Palo had to contend with traffic in the midfield and failed to crack the top ten.

In the longer race of the Spanish weekend, the Trident Motorsport drivers’ results were influenced by their starting position.

Kicking off from tenth on the grid, Slater quickly worked his way up to seventh place by the end of the first lap. In the first corner brawl, the seventeen-year-old Englishman from Stratford-upon-Avon slightly cut the track and was subsequently penalized with a five-second penalty. Despite receiving the penalty, the Audi Junior Driver remained undaunted, climbing further up the standings until he entered the top five. The high track temperatures did not favor Slater, who put too much strain on his tires. Toward the end, the Englishman suffered from tire wear, losing ground. Slater therefore dropped to seventh, but, as a result of the penalty, finished the race in eighth place.

Matteo De Palo and Noah Strømsted started nineteenth and twenty-second, respectively, and faced a comeback race. The eighteen-year-old from Copenhagen immediately gained five positions on the first lap and then continued his recovery. Leveraging his experience, in his second year in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, Strømsted then finished the Feature Race just shy of the points with an eleventh-place finish.

Matteo De Palo was caught up in traffic and numerous duels, making his recovery impossible. The McLaren junior driver finished the longer race of the Spanish weekend in twentieth place.

Trident Motorsport will have the chance to redeem itself in two weeks, during the fourth round of the FIA Formula 3 Championship season, which will take place at the Austrian Red Bull Ring.

Giacomo Ricci: "The qualifying results impacted our drivers' final results. Freddie Slater made a strong recovery in the Feature Race, finishing eighth despite a five-second penalty for a track limits violation. Noah Strømsted also had a strong race, especially in the finale, where he recovered well and finished just outside the points zone. Matteo De Palo was forced to fight back; he showed great assertiveness, but started too far back on the starting grid. Now we must prepare with maximum determination for the Spielberg race, where we aim to have a competitive weekend."