Stanek targeting maiden Formula 2 victory in Melbourne Sprint Race

Trident’s Roman Stanek was not all the way pleased with Qualifying 10th in Melbourne. However, he quickly turned his attentions to the Sprint Race, where he is set to start on pole.

It proved to be a strong day for the Italian outfit with Richard Verschoor qualifying third and while Stanek was pleased with the team’s result, he was a touch frustrated that a brake issue dented his hopes of being up there next to his teammate.

However, looking at the positives, he praised the work done by Trident given the step up in performance they have seen since pre-season testing.

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“I really think that we can do a good job anyway tomorrow,” said Stanek. “The car is good; we have improved a lot from Bahrain to Jeddah especially.

“I had some issues on my brakes in Qualifying therefore I was not able to put it close to my teammate because we are at the same level. It was a really positive Qualifying and tomorrow we have a chance to fight for a podium and a win.”

Explaining where they have improved, Stanek continued: “We had a balance issue with the car, aero issue but also balance as it was very hard to drive it as we wanted. It was simply not quick.

“We worked hard, with a great team of people we managed to improve. It's a positive, it's still not where we want to be because of course we want to be the quickest but it’s a positive start for the weekend.”

Attentions will quickly turn to scoring his first points of the season at an Albert Park track that he is finding enjoyable to drive.

“This circuit is nice,” stated Stanek. “To be honest when you drive it, it doesn't feel like a street circuit because the walls are close and stuff.

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“It's a nice circuit with nice views, you can see the city, you don't really think about it when you drive but it’s very cool. You have some good slow speed corners and also some tricky high-speed corners, so I'm enjoying it.”

Looking ahead to the Sprint and Feature Race, Stanek said: “Tomorrow of course we will try to fight for the win, collect some good points and then in the Feature Race we just have to stay alive.

“Anything can happen in front and then we can move forward as much as possible. We need to do a good strategy, good pit stop, and I think in the end it will pay off.”