FREDDIE Slater celebrated a podium finish in front of a home crowd at Silverstone after an intense battle with his teammate left him settling for second place, writes Tori Turner.
Originally from Stratford-Upon-Avon, Slater is currently racing in Formula 3, which serves as a support series to Formula 1 on select race weekends.
Earlier this year, he also became the first driver to join Audi’s Driver Development programme upon Audi’s entry to Formula 1 at the start of the season.
The annual British Grand Prix, held at Silverstone, allowed the 17-year-old to race in front of a patriotic home crowd that backed him all weekend.
The cheers of support were first heard when he secured his maiden pole position in the series in qualifying with a lap time of 1:45.620 which placed him 0.260s ahead of championship rival Theophile Nael.
This result lined him up first on the grid for the feature race, but set him up for a big challenge for the sprint race, which uses a reverse-grid format for the top 12.
Starting 12th, Slater made up five positions throughout the 18 laps, coming to life during the latter stages of the sprint to slingshot himself up into the crucial points-paying positions and finish seventh.
All eyes then turned to him for the feature race, which saw an attendance of 175,000 race fans, as he stared down a chance of victory.
As the lights went out, Slater maintained his position despite being challenged by Frenchman Nael, before losing out on first place to his Trident Motorsport teammate Matteo De Palo at the Hangar straight on lap three.
This marked the beginning of an intense battle between the pair, who switched places for the lead continuously, with Slater taking the position back on lap seven.
However, De Palo fought back at the end of lap 12 at Vale and retook the lead once more, before a safety car neutralised the field due to an accident on lap 18.
Racing resumed on lap 21, resulting in a last-lap showdown where Slater risked it all, making contact with De Palo on three occasions as he desperately fought for the victory.
He ended up crossing the finish line all the way down in fifth after running wide at Copse during the intense battle.
However, the tables turned in his favour hours after the race concluded when De Palo was disqualified for a technical nonconformity and multiple drivers received post-race time penalties, promoting Slater back up to second.
The final result added a fifth podium finish to his tally, making him the only driver to score a top three finish in the first five rounds.
Throughout the weekend, Slater ended up adding 24 points to his total.
With four confirmed rounds left, Slater sits second in the standings on 86 points, only 18 away from championship leader Ugo Ugochukwu.
He will take to the track again for the sixth round of the championship at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium from July 17-19.
