Trident rookie Matteo De Palo secured his first FIA Formula 3 feature race victory at Silverstone on July 5, 2026.
The Italian driver overcame a dramatic final-lap collision with teammate Freddie Slater during a late safety car restart.
De Palo started fifth on the grid but fought his way to the front.
He traded the lead with polesitter Slater before defending his position on a one-lap sprint to the checkered flag.
Campos Racing driver Ernesto Rivera finished second.
Maciej Gladysz of ART Grand Prix secured third after initial runner-up Theophile Nael received a 10-second post-race time penalty for an earlier incident with Louis Sharp.
Emotional First Win
Speaking to Feeder Series after the podium ceremony, De Palo reflected on overcoming a difficult rookie campaign that left him 26th in the standings before the weekend.
"It's been a really hard start of the season, obviously not getting the results for things out of my control.
It was not easy, also mentally, but I managed to always keep focusing on myself and believing in myself, and that was the most important thing for me," said De Palo.
The Italian driver previously struggled with technical issues and qualifying incidents in Melbourne, Monaco, Barcelona, and Spielberg. He found pace during Friday practice at Silverstone.
"For sure it's the most special [win] of my career, because of course it's in F3, but also for this big relief that I had.
I think these have been the most difficult four months in my life, but after today I feel much, much better," said De Palo.
The victory capped off a highly competitive weekend for the rookie.
He also finished fourth in Saturday's sprint race after being overtaken for a podium position on the final corner.
"A very good weekend here at Silverstone.
We knew we had the pace since Free Practice because we have always been at the top, so we are pretty happy for our work done at home to prepare for this race.
It's the result of the work done with my engineer, with my coach, and all the McLaren staff, so we are pretty happy about what we are achieving together," said De Palo.
"It has not been an easy start to the season, we had a lot of issues, but we were keeping our faith that we were going to do a strong year together and this is the result this weekend, so really happy.
Starting from P5 is not a guarantee that you can get this win, so doing it like this is even better," he added.
De Palo had already noted his team's underlying capabilities following his strong performance during the shorter sprint event the previous afternoon.
"We knew that this was our potential," said De Palo.
"We've been really lacking in the previous races, but we managed to put it all together this week."
De Palo explained that starting eighth in the reverse-grid sprint race gave him strong baseline data to challenge teammate Slater for the Sunday feature race victory.
"We were starting pretty far from the podium in P8 for the first bit, so also seeing that we were fighting for P2 even at the end of the last lap, makes me confident for tomorrow because the pace looks really, really unbelievable," said De Palo.
Despite his excitement regarding his race pace, the Italian driver expressed mild frustration regarding a last-lap maneuver executed by Nael during the Saturday event.
"It was really a fun race until the end," joked De Palo.
"I lost the position to Théophile for the podium at the last corner, so it was funny until there."
The driver maintained that starting closer to the front row for the feature race would allow him to execute better offensive strategies from the start of the race.
"It wasn't really fun for me then, maybe for Théophile because he got the podium.
But overall the race was really good, fighting through the fast corners, on the outside, inside, it's been a really, really nice race," said De Palo.
De Palo concluded his pre-race remarks by stating his intent to fight directly for the lead alongside his teammate, capitalizing on a cleaner weekend configuration.
"I'm looking forward to tomorrow to have the same one. Hopefully with a better ending," said De Palo.
The driver expressed extreme confidence regarding his entry position for Sunday's feature event after securing fifth in Friday qualifying.
"Tomorrow, we start more at the front," said De Palo. "There are more opportunities to get, everything is there to take."
He emphasized that maximizing track position early would remain critical to his success against the rest of the 30-car field.
"We will look forward already trying to make up positions from the first lap.
But I think we didn't maximise completely our results in quali yesterday, losing the P2 by just half a tenth, so I think we can get there and hopefully fight with Freddie for the lead in the race," said De Palo.
Championship Standings and Next Round
Championship leader Ugo Ugochukwu finished fourth to expand his advantage in the drivers' standings. He holds 97 points ahead of Slater's 78 points.
The next round of the championship will take place at Spa-Francorchamps from July 17-19.
FIA Formula 3 Silverstone Feature Race Results:
- 1. Matteo De Palo (Trident) – 40m51.122s
- 2. Ernesto Rivera (Campos Racing) – +0.374s
- 3. Maciej Gładysz (ART Grand Prix) – +0.503s
- 4. James Wharton (Prema Racing) – +0.945s
- 5. Freddie Slater (Trident) – +1.411s
- 6. Ugo Ugochukwu (Campos Racing) – +1.663s
- 7. Louis Sharp (Prema Racing) – +3.361s
- 8. Noah Stromsted (Trident) – +3.772s
- 9. Kanato Le (ART Grand Prix) – +3.929s
- 10. Alessandro Giusti (MP Motorsport) – +4.226s
