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.
