Trident Motorsport wraps the FREC season up at Hockenheim
The final round of the Formula Regional European Championship at Hockenheim provided a mixed bag for Trident. Saturday saw a strong performance from Maksimilian Popov: fifth in qualifying, the driver then built on his result by earning valuable points in the race.
Sunday was less fortunate: after nearly finishing in the top 10 in the second qualifying session with an 11th-fastest time, Popov was forced to retire in the final race. He finishes the season in 11th place in the overall standings with 60 points, capped off by a great weekend at Spa where he secured pole and victory.
Andrija Kostić also retired in race 2, finishing 24th in Saturday's race. Kai Daryanani suffered a similar fate, finishing 23rd in both races 1 and 2 after a 21st-fastest time in qualifying. The Indian thus closes out his 2026 season with 10 total championship points.
Maximilian Popov: “The Hockenheim weekend is over, and so is the championship. Overall, it was a decent weekend. We found a bit more pace and I managed to qualify near the front for the first race. We finished P5 in Race 1 on Saturday, which was a good result for us and showed that we were making some progress. Today, qualifying was a bit compromised by traffic, so I had to start from P11. Unfortunately, I was involved in a collision on the first lap and that ended our race. It’s not the way we wanted to finish the season, but I’m really thankful for the opportunity and to the team for everything. I know how much work we put in together to make things better, so I really appreciate it. Now we’ll see what comes next.”
Andrija Kostić: “The final race of the year didn’t go our way. We had some technical issues and a few unlucky moments, so we didn’t finish the season the way we wanted. We had a big crash in Race 1 and then Qualifying 2 was compromised as well. Overall, it wasn’t the best weekend, but now the season is over and we’ll see what to do in the future”
Kai Daryanani:“It was a tricky weekend. We started with some difficulties, but then we found some good pace. The potential we had as a team was already clear in Qualifying 1, so a big credit to the guys for making it all work. Today we struggled a bit more in general. The field is really tight, so you need to be absolutely on it because every tenth matters, and if you don’t put everything together, it costs you a lot. We can still take some positives from yesterday’s Race 1, where we had good race pace and made some good overtakes. Today we struggled a bit more with the balance as well, and there are some things we could have done better as a team. But I learned a lot in this championship and I’m really grateful to the team for always supporting me. So, onwards and upwards..”