Race report

FIA F3

Trident Racing has rough weekend in Silverstone

Trident Racing fielded three drivers, as newcoming Giovanni Venturini lined-up alongside Vicky Piria and Antonio Spavone

Edited: Jun 1, 2018, 1:58 PM

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Vicky Piria

The GP3 Series rounded out the first part of its 2012 schedule last weekend at Silverstone, with the running of round 4, held at the traditional English venue in some equally traditional variable weather conditions.

Vicky Piria

Photo by: GP3 Media Service

In the British weekend of the series, Trident Racing fielded three drivers, as newcoming Giovanni Venturini lined-up alongside Vicky Piria and Antonio Spavone, joining the team in a particularly tough weekend. Despite the many obstacles faced, Venturini managed to put together a convincing drive, improving his pace lap after lap on a new racecar for him.

Vicky Piria also gathered a positive feedback. In the qualifying session, she managed to get closer and closer to the frontrunners' laptimes, showing to have grown consistently despite the slippery track conditions. Antonio Spavone suffered from some tough breaks in qualifying and his starting position conditioned his whole weekend. The GP3 Series will be back on-track at the Hockenheim Ring from July 20th to 22nd.

Giovanni Venturini

"The weekend at Silverstone proved very intense. Everything was new, starting from the car, the tires and the general environment of the series. Unfortunately, the weather condition were particularly tough and complicated things. In practice we ran with a wet track, while qualifying was held on the dry. So I hit the track on slick tires for the first time in the 30-minute qualifying session without any previous feedback.

"I was surprised by the car's downforce and by the toughness of the other drivers on-track. It's a way of racing that I liked a lot because while nobody acted unfairly, there have been a lot of action! The general balance of the weekend is pretty positive for me. I finished the two races, got close to the top-10 and I think I will be realistically able to chase a points finish by the next round at Hockenheim. Then, after that, the goal will be to hit the podium."

Antonio Spavone

"I think that without all the inconveniences the weekend's balance could have done much different. Due to a ride height problem, I suffered in qualifying and that compromised the whole weekend's outcome. In two part of the track the car was bottoming out and I had a tough time in controlling it. I started Race 1 in 21st, and when you start so far back it's really tough to recover. My laptimes though showed my potential, as we also made a lot of progress in Race 2.

"Then we suffered from a wrong tire choice in the weather lottery. I would have gone for slick tires, but right before the start some raindrops started to fall and I changed my mind, switching to wet tires. It's a pity, because it would have been a winning move to fight back at the top of the pack and come back home with a great result".

Vicky Piria

"The round at Silverstone started under a thick rainfall, and it was the first time for me in this conditions in a long time, and it never happened in GP3. Then in qualifying things changed a lot. We worked on the car's set-up without any good feedback but in the end the work done paid off. I clocked the 15th fastest lap, not too far away from the frontrunners in terms of laptimes.

"In Race 1 all the drivers started off with dry tires on a damp asphalt. It's been really difficult for people like me, who had never raced in the same conditions. I did not take many risks and I successfully completed the race. In the second race we were less lucky as we started with wet tires but the track quickly dried out. I tried to carry-on that way but in the final lap but I lost my braking point and went off-track. Once back on the circuit another car hit me and my day was over…"

Source: Trident Racing

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