FEATURE RACE: De Palo claims hard fought maiden F3 victory at Silverstone

Matteo De Palo achieved his first victory in FIA Formula 3 with a resilient performance at the Silverstone Feature Race.

After making his way to the front after starting fifth, the TRIDENT driver was forced to defend his position on the last lap before going on to win. Ernesto Rivera finished second for Campos Racing ahead of ART Grand Prix driver Maciej Gladysz – both drivers gaining a position at the line following Théophile Nael’s 10-second time penalty.

AS IT HAPPENED

It was a great start from Nael, but polesitter Freddie Slater did incredibly well to stay ahead, braving it around the outside at Turn 1 to keep position.

De Palo was up to fourth after starting in P5 and made a nice move on Louis Sharp at the Vale chicane to take P3, with his eyes now set on Slater and Nael.

The Italian then made a nice move on Nael at Stowe, making it a TRIDENT 1-2 on Lap 3.

In the championship battle, Ugo Ugochukwu was making progress, getting past Yevan David at the Hangar straight to move up to ninth.

De Palo’s impressive start continued on Lap 4, as he dived to the inside of Slater, once again at Stowe, to take the lead of the race.

On Lap 7, Gladysz was battling well also and made a nice move around the outside at Vale on Ernesto Rivera.

Nael then tried to dive to the inside of Slater at the Loop on the next lap. The TRIDENT home favourite defended the position before taking the lead back from De Palo a few corners later at the popular Stowe.

Rivera then returned the favour on Gladysz, pulling off the same move at Vale to retake P6. The Campos driver then got past Fionn McLaughlin for P5 down the Hangar straight.

The Hitech driver and Gladysz then went wheel-to-wheel at Vale but ran wide, allowing Noah Stromsted, James Wharton and Ugochukwu to get past, relegating McLaughlin to P10.

Back at the front, Sharp had been putting some pressure on Nael for third, and on Lap 12, they went wheel-to-wheel at Stowe. But the French driver fought back Vale, putting the PREMA on the back foot at corner exit.

This allowed several drivers to get past, with Rivera, Gladysz, Wharton, Ugochukwu and Stromsted demoting him to P9 in the space of a few corners.

Lap 15 and Slater ran wide at Copse as he looked to close back in on his teammate. Behind him, Sharp tried to overtake Stromsted at Stowe, but found the door shut.

Up ahead, Nael had lost DRS to the top two, and was coming under pressure from his teammate Rivera.

Slater tried his first move on De Palo on Lap 18 at Stowe, but his teammate held on, before the Safety Car was called.

Ricardo Escotto stopped at the Loop with damage after hitting the rear of Nandhuvad Bhirombahkdi at Village.

The Safety Car was brought in on the penultimate lap setting up a grandstand finish with their being just one racing lap.

Slater had a good restart but De Palo defended well from him and Nael. The Italian then locked up into the Loop, putting his two rivals right on his back down the Wellington straight.

The two TRIDENT drivers then went side-by-side through Copse and made slight contact which sent with Briton down the order to sixth.

De Palo then had to defend from Nael and Rivera, and locked up again into the final chicane, but he managed to keep it on the road to claim his first victory in FIA Formula 3.

Nael crossed the line in P2 but was given a 10-second time penalty at the line for his part in the incident with Sharp, dropping him to P16.

This promoted Rivera to second ahead of Gladysz, Wharton, Slater and Ugochukwu. Sharp was seventh, ahead of Stromsted, with Kanato Le ninth and Alessandro Giusti in P10.

KEY QUOTE – Matteo De Palo, TRIDENT

“A very good weekend here at Silverstone. We knew we had the pace since Free Practice because we have always been at the top, so we are pretty happy for our work done at home to prepare for this race. It’s the result of the work done with my engineer, with my coach, and all the McLaren staff, so we are pretty happy about what we are achieving together. It has not been an easy start to the season, we had a lot of issues, but we were keeping our faith that we were going to do a strong year together and this is the result this weekend, so really happy. Starting from P5 is not a guarantee that you can get this win, so doing it like this is even better.”

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

Ugo Ugochukwu continues to lead the Drivers’ Championship on 97 points, while Freddie Slater stays second with 78. Théophile Nael is third with 60 points, ahead of Noah Stromsted on 51 as Bruno del Pino rounds out the top five on 49.

Campos Racing continue to top the Teams’ Standings on 202 points, with TRIDENT second with 161. Van Amersfoort Racing are third on 109, followed by Rodin Motorsport who have 78 points, as ART Grand Prix sit fifth on 69.

UP NEXT

The drivers will get a short break before returning to the track for Round 6 at Spa-Francorchamps from July 17-19.