Trident claims seventh place with Fornaroli
The FIA Formula 3 Championship completed its British outing with the running of the Feature Race at Silverstone, in a day conditioned by changing weather conditions that made for an unpredictable run at the Northamptonshire track. As precipitations started to fall before the start, most drivers lined up with rain tyres, and the list included Leonardo Fornaroli and Sami Meguetounif. At the start, Fornaroli, who was fourth on the grid, made up one spot right away, while Meguetounif dropped from P3 to P13 and Santiago Ramos fought back from P17 to the 10th position.
Intermittent rain gave the early advantage to the drivers who started on slicks, while two crashes caused safety car interventions which recompacted the pack. In the meantime, Ramos also pitted for rain tyres.
The race restarted with 15 laps to go. Fornaroli did a great job in moving up to P2 behind Luke Browning, but right after that, a new contact led to another safety car intervention. Fornaroli was still P2, while Meguetounif was in P5 and Ramos in P16. The following re-start happened with 13 laps to go, and at that point, the track started to dry quickly, making it extremely challenging for the drivers on rain tyres. That’s how Fornaroli’s seventh place came to be, as well as for Meguetounif’s P12 and for the 16th place of Ramos.
The series will have a one-week break as July starts to heat up. The next round is scheduled for the penultimate weekend of the month at Budapest. Fornaroli is now sitting P4 in the Driver Championship with 93 points.
Giacomo Ricci, Team Manager, Feature Race Quote:“The constantly changing weather conditions were an uncontrollable variable in this race, which was eventually decided by the fact that the track dried and rewarded the drivers on slicks, probably chosen by those who had less to risk, given that conditions were expected to get worse. The final placement of our drivers is due to the situation, more than to other factors. Unfortunately, Fornaroli was unable to go beyond seventh place, a result that distanced him from the top of the points standings. Meguetounif and Ramos, however, did not make it the top ten".