With great comeback from 16th to 6th De Palo remains the series leader
Sunday morning proved to be extremely difficult for the Regional European by Alpine. The second qualifying session, in cold and wet asphalt conditions, had not brought good luck not only to the Trident team (with Matteo De Palo 16th overall, Riuqi Liu 18th and Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi 26th after an off-track), but also to other top contenders of the championship.
In the afternoon, things changed for the better for Maurizio Salvadori's team. In fact, in race 2, De Palo was the protagonist of a spectacular comeback that led him to finish in sixth position, recovering those points that allow him to maintain the championship lead after the brilliant second place in race 1. Liu also did well, 14th at the checkered flag, and so did Bhirombhakdi, who rolled up his sleeves to climbd up to 17th place. The general classification now sees De Palo in command with 66 points, Giltaire 55, Deligny 53.
De Palo: “In qualifying 2 we had a problem with tyre temperatures due to difficult weather conditions and the result was disappointing, not only for me, but also for my rivals in the championship standings. In race 2, my car was very fast and I was able to recover up to sixth place and it’s a shame we had two safety cars because we could have aimed for the top 5. Considering that Slater and Giltaire didn’t score points, I was able to increase my lead in the standings and this leaves me in a positive mood for Zandvoort”.
Bhirombhadki: “It was a tough weekend, a very disappointing one. Since the previous race weekend we showed strong pace, good speed and good potential to fight for good results. The collision in Race 1 was out of my control, it unfortunately pushed me back and then I managed to recover. Qualifying was unlucky too: we had some drizzle and light rain, it made me lose the car and crash into the wall. At least, iIn the race we managed to recover some positions and get confirmation that the car has been good all weekend. I’ve showed very good pace and it was just bad luck and misfortune, which was out of my control. I’ll take the positives and push forward for next time in Zandvoort and I know that I can do a good job.”
Liu: “Starting with qualifying I felt really confident until the last lap, and there, unfortunate traffic just messed up our solid position. I could have easily been in top four in the group, and that would have put us at a way better starting position than P18. It was a shame but, except from yesterday, in the race it was so messy… Still, I managed a full start and to recover a few positions. I hope Zandvoort will be better”.