Trident Motorsport delivered another positive run in the Feature Race of the FIA Formula 3 Championship round at Imola, confirming an extremely solid form. The team based in Ossona dominated the qualifying session, ending up 1-2-3 with Santiago Ramos, Leonardo Fornaroli, and Sami Meguetounif respectively. The 19-year-old driver from Piacenza was also lining up as the championship leader tied with Luke Browning and, after the Sprint Race, with Gabriele Minì. After a Sprint Race featuring four safety car interventions and one virtual safety car, everything went smoothly from the start today with the Trident Motorsport trio firmly taking the reins of the race in the same order in which they started.
After just two laps, Fornaroli overtook Ramos, taking command of operations under braking at Tamburello. Meguetounif simultaneously dropped back to fourth position to the advantage of Goethe, who also overtook Ramos and Fornaroli. The Italian dropped to fifth place due to a collision with a kerb that momentarily shut his car down.
In the central stages, Goethe took the lead but had no chance of resisting the stellar recovery of Meguetounif, who overtook his rival and sailed away towards his first win in the series with a two-second margin.
Fornaroli made an excellent recovery up to P3, which propelled him to the championship lead with a three-point advantage over his closest rival. Ramos, who had a drop in his race pace in the final stages, finished in P8. A busy stint of the season will now continue: the FIA Formula 3 Championship will be running a Monte Carlo for round 4.
Giacomo Ricci, Team Manager:“Winning at our home track with rookie Sami Meguetounif and finishing third with Leonardo Fornaroli is certainly a significant result, which fills us with pride and motivates us to always do better. Meguetounif was great at managing tire degradation. He let Goethe go in the central stages of the race but then regained the lead at the right time. Fornaroli also had the potential to aim for victory, but a momentary stop of his car's engine caused him to drop to P5. He recovered well to secure the third step of the podium, which enabled him to assume a solitary lead in the Driver Championship. After a competitive first phase of the race, Santiago Ramos handed the team good points, although his race pace dropped progressively. We now need to keep our focus high and prepare with maximum concentration for next weekend's round at Monte Carlo."
