John Bennett’s Monza Weekend Debrief

It was a great Monza weekend for John Bennett as the TRIDENT driver secured one of his strongest finishes of the season in the Feature Race, ending up P4.

Reflecting on Round 10 overall, the Briton gave his thoughts on how he and TRIDENT were able to build into the weekend and maximise their result on Sunday.

BEST F2 WEEKEND TO DATE

"A really good weekend, by far my best Formula 2 weekend to date. Really strong throughout. We fell into a good place with the car from the start of the weekend. We met the top 10 goal in Qualifying and then I really feel like we maximised both races, I think.

“This weekend, the Invictas were just a little step above the rest of us. But P2 in the sprint, P4 in the feature from P10 on the grid, fighting up the field, it's been a really enjoyable weekend.

A WELL MANAGED RACE

“Talking through, the race itself. I think we managed all the phases of the race really quite well. You know, we had a decent lap one, and it came to me with the late battles.

“I think gained a position, and then settled into the race. I think we made the right call at the pit stop, pitting a lap earlier than most cars to get the undercut.

“The team did a great job on the strategy. We were really quick, managed to keep the DRS with León, and then passed quite a few cars coming out of the pits. Which was good.

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"After the Safety Car restart, we were just then behind Dunne for the second half of the race and just reeling him in slowly. I felt quite a bit stronger than him, managed to make the pass. And then it was really tricky at the end.

“We had like five laps with no DRS. trying to hold off Dunne and Miyata behind. But, you know, we had the pace and the tyres to make it work. So I was just focused on getting clean exits making sure they couldn't attack me down into Turn 1 and we hung on for P4.”

CARRYING CONFIDENCE INTO MADRID

“For sure a really good confidence boost. You know, it's perfect coming back from the summer break.

“All the work I was doing over that period has paid off. Most of the work I've been doing throughout the year has been paying off. I’ve just got to say a massive thank you to the team.

“They worked super hard. The car's been really quick this weekend and it's been really quick all year. And they just keep on improving the car and they keep on improving me as a driver.

“It feels nice to finally get a decent points haul over the weekend, which is something that I think we've been very close to on a number of occasions, but it hasn't quite clicked for whatever reason. So, picking things back up with a really good weekend like this is really nice.

"This is a really strong weekend for me and the team. Madrid - no one's ever been there, so it'll be a bit of a challenge for all of us drivers and teams.

“I'm really looking forward to it. The track looks really, really fun to drive and it sounds really good from what I've heard from the F3 guys. But I’m looking forward to it and hopefully we can continue these results to the front of the field.”