Trident disappointed at Monza in the Formula Regional European
The home round of the Formula Regional European Championship did not reflect the true strength of Trident Motorsport. A series of circumstances beyond the control of Maurizio Salvadori's drivers precluded no chance of a strong showing. This is a real shame because, as demonstrated in free practice, the technical potential was not lacking, and it would have been reasonable to consider aiming for victory, as happened in the second race at Spa.
Maksimilian Popov finished tenth in the first qualifying session and fifth in the second, but a series of collisions prevented him from reaching the podium. The same goes for Kai Daryanani, who did well to secure tenth place in race one from 22nd on the grid, but was once again unlucky in the second race. Andrija Kostić had a difficult weekend, promising a battle in the next round in Budapest.
Kai Daryanani: “I think it could have been a better weekend. We had a tricky Qualifying 1, while Qualifying 2 was a bit better, but the grid is super tight so even small improvements make a difference. We made some steps forward, and we managed to move up a lot in Race 1, and also in Race 2 before we were taken out in the middle of the race while we were in the points. In the last race I didn’t even make it through Turn 5, so it was really unfortunate to be honest. We know that when we come to Monza it’s easy to have a lot of crashes with other drivers because of how the track is, so it’s just one of those weekends. Still, there are a lot of positives, a lot of good improvements. The team is pushing hard and we are doing a lot of good work. The car is getting better and stronger, so we will keep pushing for Hungary”.
Maximilian Popov: “The potential was definitely there this weekend. In the first race I couldn't really do much because I got hit at Turn 1. In Race 2, I started from P3 and managed to take the lead on the opening lap, but unfortunately I got hit in the rear at Turn 1 on lap 2, which dropped me from P1 to the back of the field. We recovered to finish P13, but that doesn't make up for losing the lead. Race 3 was going pretty well too. Starting from P4, I was running in P3 going into the final lap, but while fighting for the podium we had a collision with another driver and ended up P8.Overall, I think we wasted a bit of potential this weekend. I'm really thankful to the team for giving me a great car in every session and for repairing it after the damage from Race 1. Now we look ahead to Hungary and keep pushing for the win”.
Andrija Kostić: “Unfortunately, many things happened this weekend that were completely out of our control. That is the reason why we couldn’t get a good result and why we couldn’t really use the pace we had. Even when we did everything right and secured good positions, other people’s actions caused situations that were unavoidable. It just wasn’t meant to be this weekend, it wasn’t our weekend”.