Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Sami Meguetounif is hoping that Trident will have his car rebuilt in time for Formula 2’s feature race on Sunday after a hefty sprint race crash.
On lap four of Saturday’s race, Meguetounif divided to the inside of Campos Racing driver Arvid Lindblad at turn three while Lindblad was attempting to pass Hitech GP’s Luke Browning.
As Lindblad turned in, contact was made. Meguetounif bounced off his car, and Lindblad was sent into the path of Browning. Due to being off the ground, Meguetounif’s car then rolled over Browning’s as it made contact then rolled again before coming to a stop. The race was red flagged for 40 minutes following the crash, which all three drivers walked away from.
With extensive damage at all four corners, Trident was left with “nearly a complete rebuild” to complete according to Meguetounif.
“Hopefully, the car will be ready for tomorrow,” he told Formula Scout. “We’ve got the engine and all the spare parts, so it is a short night for the team. It’s almost a complete rebuild. If the car is ready, which I’m sure it will be, I will give everything to pay them back for their work.”
The 21-year-old was not penalised for the crash, since the stewards found no driver wholly at fault for the incident.
“Things happen very quickly,” Meguetounif said. “When I took the decision to brake quite late I couldn’t come back, and I think Arvid went for a move on Luke forgetting about me.”
He added: “He bought his car to the apex, and we made contact as I had nowhere to go but, as the stewards say, it was a racing incident. I think it was quite optimistic from both me and Arvid to make that move.”
The safety of the drivers was secured by the halo cockpit protection device, saving all three drivers from potential injuries.
“When the contact was made it all happened very quickly. I closed my eyes, but watching the replay the halo saved me and Luke.”
Should he make the grid, Meguetounif will start from 13th place and he has an eye on scoring. The Frenchman has one point so far this year.
“I started close to the top 10 so if we make a good strategy and our pace which is looking good I hope to score points and bounce back,” he said.