Trident takes 10th place with Ramos in fragmented race
The FIA Formula 3 Championship is back on the Imola circuit, home to the first European race of the season and the third round of the category for 2024. The home atmosphere was definitely positive for Trident Motorsport. The team completely dominated the qualifying session, scoring the three fastest lap times with its drivers. Taking pole, 20-year-old Mexican rookie Santiago Ramos got on top ahead of Leonardo Fornaroli and Sami Meguetounif.
With the reversed top-12 grid of the Sprint Race, Meguetounif, Fornaroli and Ramos started from P10, P11, and P12 respectively. At the start, a crash caused a safety car, with Meguetounif in P9, Ramos in P11, and Fornaroli in P13. The driver from Piacenza lost some spots in the confusion of the opening lap. Right after the restart, which occurred on lap 4, there was another multi-car collision that saw the race neutralized again. Meguetounif was able to recover up to P7 between the two safety-car periods. At the following restart though, he was in turn involved in a collision himself which created the third caution, which froze the race until lap 11. A fourth safety car then eventually came due to a car stalled on track.
The Sprint Race featured very little running and restarted with three laps to go, in which there was still time for a virtual safety car. At the checkered flag, Ramos secured P10 in front of Fornaroli. With the points finish scored by the Mexican in the bag, Trident Motorsport and its drivers will analyze the data collected today with the team's technical staff in the regular preparation work for the Feature Race, scheduled for tomorrow at 8:30 AM local time.
“We got very little racing today, with four neutralizations due to as many accidents and a virtual safety car. Yesterday's good qualifying, combined with the reversed grid, forced our drivers to start between rows 5 and 6, with a high risk of getting caught up in contacts. Meguetounif recovered well but was forced to retire by a crash. Ramos lost out a bit due to a trip through the gravel, while Fornaroli could not take full advantage of the hard-fought situations that constantly changed the running order. However, the most important race of our weekend will be tomorrow. What happened today provided us with further elements in the preparation work for the Feature Race."