FEATURE RACE: Câmara wins strategic Barcelona battle for maiden F2 victory

Rafael Câmara secured his first win in FIA Formula 2 with a well-judged drive to the top step. The Invicta Racing driver extended his first stint longer than any of his rivals and made the most of the tyre offset in the final stint to come back through and take victory.

Nikola Tsolov used the alternative strategy for a charge of his own to take second and the Championship lead, while Alexander Dunne rounded out the podium.

AS IT HAPPENED

Câmara did not get the best of starts from pole and Dunne took the lead on the run to Turn 1. Rafael Villagómez grabbed a hold of third while title rivals Tsolov and Gabriele Minì were immediately battling.

The Campos Racing driver took P4 from the Italian at Turn 1, but Minì fought back around the outside of Tsolov to take the spot back at Turn 3, as Nico Varrone also snuck his way through for P5. The Safety Car was deployed before the end of the opening lap after Oliver Goethe stopped on track at the exit of the pit lane.

With his car recovered, racing resumed entering Lap 4, and Dunne got a great restart to put a half second buffer between himself and Câmara.

At the penultimate corner, Colton Herta used his Soft tyres to dive to the inside of Turn 13 to take sixth from Tsolov, who’d started on the Hard Pirelli compound. Dino Beganovic was the next to go through, passing into Turn 1 on Lap 5. Martinius Stenshorne claimed eighth from the Bulgarian at Turn 10.

By Lap 9, Villagómez had lost touch with the leading pair and had Minì on his gearbox in the fight for third. The Mexican driver held on through the opening corners but one lap later, the MP was through, seizing P3 around the outside of Turn 1.

Villagómez was in from fourth at the end of Lap 12 and was followed in by Beganovic. The Swede rejoined ahead of Stenshorne, but lost the spot with his tyres not yet up to temperature.

Up front, Câmara forced Dunne to defend the lead into Turn 1 and was looking the quicker of the two ahead of the pitstops. Rodin called in their driver at the end of Lap 13 while Câmara and Minì continued on.

Minì was in on Lap 15 for his mandatory stop and switch to Hards, and the MP driver rejoined between Dunne and Villagómez,15th on the road.

Lap 17 and after an earlier attempt left him skipping across the run-off, Beganovic cleared Stenshorne at Turn 1 to take 16th position following their stops.

Dunne and Minì began to hit traffic on Lap 19 as Câmara continued to extend his first stint on the Soft tyres. Lap 21 and the Irishman was up to eighth on the road as Roman Bilinski ran wide on his old Hard tyres at the final corner.

Minì followed through at Turn 3 to keep his fellow Alpine Academy driver in his sights. The Rodin cleared Maini at Turn 10 to take seventh, with the Italian also promoted as the Sprint Race winner was called into the pits for his stop.

Câmara was finally called in at the end of Lap 22 for his stop, handing the lead over to Tsolov. Dunne and Minì were battling for fourth on the road, and came down the pit straight to clear Câmara, who rejoined down in ninth.

Joshua Duerksen was still yet to pit, and the Alpine pair were desperate to clear the Paraguayan. Out of Turn 10 and with superior traction, they went either side of the Invicta driver with Dunne just about able to hold Minì off to keep track position.

With a 10-lap tyre life advantage on the four drivers ahead, Câmara began to close in on the leaders. Beganovic was pressuring Villagómez for third, but the pole sitter was right onto the rear wing of the DAMS Lucas Oil driver and passed him into Turn 10.

Onto Lap 26 and he breezed by Villagómez to take third on the road, with Minì just over a second ahead.

Lap 27 and he was well within DRS range of the Championship leader and looking for a move. That arrived as they started the next lap, and he used DRS to clear Minì and turned focus to Dunne, two seconds up the road in the lead.

Tsolov was putting on his own charge having stopped and fitted the Soft tyres. He dived down the inside of Herta at Turn 7 to take seventh with 10 laps to go. That became sixth with a pass on Varrone at T10 as he moved to within 10 seconds of the race lead.

Entering Lap 30 and down the main straight, Câmara completed his charge through to re-take the lead into Turn 1. Tsolov was up to fourth a few seconds behind as he moved ahead of Beganovic.

Lap 33 and Tsolov was into DRS range of Minì ahead. He shaped for a dive into Turn 10 once again but using the superior traction on exit, drove by his title rival to take third place.

Entering the final three laps and Tsolov used the DRS to get alongside Dunne into Turn 1, but the Irishman defended hard through Turn 2. But at Turn 3, Tsolov dared to try around the outside and he stuck it out at T4 to complete the move for second place.

Câmara’s hard work was done however and he crossed the line to take win number one in F2 by just under 10 seconds. Tsolov’s impressive day earned him second as Dunne kept Minì at range to hold onto third place on the podium.

Laurens van Hoepen clawed his way back into the points from P13 on the grid to finish fifth ahead of Beganovic and TRIDENT teammate John Bennett. Noel León, Kush Maini and Roman Bilinski completed the points down to 10th.

KEY QUOTE – Rafael Câmara, Invicta Racing

“Very happy with that, big thanks to the team. The car was very good today as well as yesterday. It’s good to finally get our first win but now we’ll keep our heads down, keep working to make sure we keep up the pace.”

THE CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

Nikola Tsolov takes over the lead of the Drivers’ Championship with 86, moving ahead of Gabriele Minì on 83. Rafael Câmara climbs up to third place with his win going onto 69 points, with Alexander Dunne fourth with 64. Noel León rounds out the top five with 54 points.

In the Teams’ Standings Campos Racing remain at the top with 140 points ahead of Rodin Motorsport on 112. MP Motorsport are five points clear of Invicta Racing in third and fourth with 95 and 90 points respectively, as DAMS Lucas Oil complete the top five on 65.

UP NEXT

There’s a short break before FIA Formula 2 action resumes with Round 6 in Spielberg from June 24-26