Trident gets back to the points zone with Roman Staněk at Spa

Trident Motorsport gets back to the points zone with Roman Staněk at Spa. A penalty prevents Clément Novalak from making it to the top-10.
                                                                                          
The Feature Race that concluded the tenth round of the FIA Formula 2 Championship, on the fast ups and downs of the demanding Spa-Francorchamps track, saw a solid performance by both Trident Motorsport cars, which returned to the points zone with Roman Staněk.

After setting the 17th and 18th fastest laps respectively in qualifying on the wet, Novalak and Staněk put up a convincing race in which they both deserved to finish in the top ten. Novalak started with Prime tyres and made an excellent first run, which saw him quickly recover to the verge of the points zone. On lap 11, he entered the pit lane to serve his pit-stop and put on a set of Option tires.

The tire change was carried out flawlessly by the team, but upon returning to the track, the Avignon native crossed the white line and was penalized five seconds. The entry of the safety car at the end of the race recompacted the pack, canceling the advantage that he had accumulated. He was thus relegated to P14. As for Roman Staněk, the driver from the Czech Republic delivered a good race pace, made the tire change on lap 16, and climbed well to ninth position.
 
Giacomo Ricci, Team Manager, Feature Race quote
 
"Today we would have deserved to get to the points zone with both cars. Unfortunately, Novalak made an infraction coming out of the pit lane that cost him several positions. He was also disadvantaged by the neutralization that recompacted the pack and deleted his margin, bringing the chasing drivers closer. Clément's still put up a good performance and had a solid race pace, which was mirrored in the Feature Race by Roman Staněk, who climbed up from the ninth row of the grid to P9, confirming the continued progress shown by our line-up. Now we take a well-deserved break before the double round at Zandvoort at Monza between the end of August and the beginning of September.”