While looking forward to the seventh round of the FIA F2 Championship, Team Trident is delighted to announce their agreement with American Santino Ferrucci, who will partner Nabil Jeffri for the last five rounds of 2017.

As the FIA Formula 2 Championship gets ready to line-up at the Hungaroring near Budapest, Team Trident is delighted to announce their revamped line-up of returning Nabil Jeffri and Santino Ferrucci. Starting from the Hungarian round of the series, the driving roster will remain unchanged for the remainder of the championship.

The arrival of the 19-year-old Connecticut-based racer, in his second year as a Team Haas F1 Development Driver, will make Team Trident stronger, relying on one of the quickest and most promising racing prospects in business.

Santino has had great experiences recently in the European Formula 3 Championship and in the GP3 Series, where he entered the first few rounds of the season.

Ferrucci continues to have an important ongoing commitment with Team Haas F1, featuring simulator and on-track runs with the goal of developing the Haas VF-17 racecar, and will take part in the 2 day Formula 1 test in Budapest following the race weekend.

Lining-up alongside him will be Jeffri, who has impressed in terms of race pace in his most recent outings. The Team Trident technical staff is confident in the ability of the Malaysian to keep doing well in the final rounds of the year.

Giacomo Ricci, Team Manager: “We are really proud to announce the agreement reached between Team Trident and the American racer Santino Ferrucci for the final five rounds of the FIA Formula 2 season."

"The 19-year-old from Connecticut already had the chance to test one of our GP3 Series cars in last November’s collective postseason test at Abu Dhabi.

"Back then, he impressed the team’s staff, bringing home great results and keeping his name among the top-5 at all times. He is now set to make his Formula 2 debut at Budapest, on the same track where he led the way in GP3 Series testing."

"I am sure that Santino has all the skills needed to adapt to a Formula 2 car very quickly. Also, thanks to his Formula 1 experience, he will not having problems in managing more power and carbon fiber brakes." He concluded

source: fiaformula2.com

Charles Leclerc has claimed his fifth race of the season at a damp Silverstone in this afternoon’s feature race, making light of a big fluid leak and losing a mirror to fly to victory by almost 9 seconds over a race long battle between Norman Nato and Oliver Rowland.

The Monegasque driver led the grid away when the lights went out, easily holding the lead from pole as his fellow front row starter Rowland was slow off the line, allowing Nato into P2 before the first corner ahead of the Briton and countryman Jordan King, Nobuharu Matsushita, Artem Markelov, Sergio Canamasas, and Nicholas Latifi as the field shook out around the circuit.

The Russian got a good run on Matsushita next time around to grab P5, but the Japanese driver soon came back at him, battling all the way to the stops, with Luca Ghiotto also squeezing by Latifi just before the pitstops started on lap 6. Most of the front runners were straight in but Leclerc stayed out before suffering a huge fluid release from under his engine cover, coming straight into the pits next time through.

If his rivals were hoping for a mechanical gremlin they were to be denied: the Ferrari Academy driver was straight back out on track in the lead of the pitted drivers, behind only Matsushita, Ralph Boschung, Robert Visoiu, Alexander Albon and Callum Ilott, all of who started on the harder compound. With the fight between Nato and Rowland raging behind, Leclerc soon started slicing through the cars ahead of him back towards P1.

As the laps wound down Leclerc was moving up, but on lap 20 his left mirror flew off his car, giving him something else to consider as he tracked down Matsushita for the lead. The Japanese driver finally pitted a lap later and Leclerc was back where he started, and pulling away from his rivals just to twist the knife.

When the chequered flag dropped Leclerc was 9 seconds ahead of Nato, who denied race long pressure from Rowland to hold on for second. Markelov was the next man across the line, fighting his way past Canamasas and others for P6, while teammate Ghiotto mugged King and Latifi in the closing stages for 6^th, with Sean Gelael and Matsushita filling the final points positions. 

Preliminary Qualifying Classification

source: fiaformula2.com

Nicholas Latifi put in a racing masterclass to easily claim his maiden FIA Formula 2 win with a strong drive in cold conditions in this morning’s Sprint Race in Silverstone, building a big lead before controlling the restart from a late safety car to win ahead of RUSSIAN TIME’s Luca Ghiotto and Artem Markelov. 

The Canadian made light work of the chilly conditions to make a great start from pole when the lights went out, easily holding Ghiotto and Oliver Rowland behind him as he led the way into turn 1, with the latter soon under attack by Jordan King: the pair touched at turn 3 with King sent wide but Rowland continuing before easing Markelov partially onto the grass to avoid an attack, earning a 5 second penalty for his efforts. 

Latifi set a string of fast laps to break the chain back to Ghiotto, but behind the top 4 Sergio Canamasas and Charles Leclerc were having a huge battle for lap after lap before the Monegasque driver finally and firmly pushed past the Spaniard on lap 12 and headed off to mix it with the others, with Rowland pushing Ghiotto all around the track and Markelov biding his time between the pair as Latifi sailed into the distance. 

The Canadian looked serene in the lead, but a late wrinkle in his plans arose on lap 18 when Ralph Boschung tried to overtake Alexander Albon but put a wheel on the grass before heavily impacting the wall at Stowe, prompting a safety car period with 3 laps remaining.

Fast work by the marshals saw the last lap run live: Latifi easily controlled the restart to win from Ghiotto, while behind them Rowland tried to hold up his rivals but instead gave a line through for Markelov to mug him for 3rd on track, with Rowland 4th on track but 10th in the classification due to his time penalty. 

The Leclerc/Canamasas war restarted into the final complex, with the Spaniard stealing a march on the Monegasque for P4, with Norman Nato holding on for 6th when teammate Sean Gelael, who had followed him all race long, spun out of the race at Vale to promote Nyck De Vries (an impressive race after starting last on the grid) and Nobuharu Matsushita into the final points positions. 

The feature race win saw Leclerc extend his lead in the championship to 67 points over the promoted Markelov, 188 points to 121, with Rowland dropping to third on 117 points ahead Latifi on 91 and Ghiotto on 86, while in the teams’ title fight PREMA Racing has nudged ahead of DAMS by 3 points, 211 points to 208, with RUSSIAN TIME one point further back on 207 points as the field looks ahead to Round 7 of the championship in Budapest, Hungary.

Provisional Sprint Race Classification 

Alexander Albon has been handed a 3 place grid penalty for tomorrow’s feature race in Silverstone by the race stewards following this afternoon’s qualifying session, after being judged to have impeded Nabil Jeffri during the session.

The Thai driver, who finished the session in P10, will now line up on the grid in 13^th, promoting Nyck De Vries, Gustav Malja and Luca Ghiotto.