Campos hails Tsolov’s ‘redemption’ victory after team double in Monte Carlo

Adrián Campos heaped praise on his entire Campos Racing team following their victories in Monte Carlo, reserving special mentions for his drivers Nikola Tsolov and Noel León.

Tsolov won Sunday’s Feature Race by nine seconds, bouncing back from a disappointing Miami Feature Race and a difficult Round 3 in Montreal where various incidents meant he scored no points.

The Bulgarian is now second in the Drivers’ Championship with 62 points, trailing leader Gabriele Minì by just a point.

“It's the redemption that we were looking for coming from two difficult weekends for Nikola in Miami and Canada,” said Campos. “In Canada we also deserved to win the race.

“We were virtually leading until we started having some issues with the cars that were in the opposite strategy. But still we saw again that we are very competitive, if everything goes well, we fight for the win. Nikola is extremely strong now.

“We are all very motivated to try to give the drivers the tools that they need to win, and that's what they did today and yesterday. So, I can't ask anymore, to be honest. Let's see if we can keep it up for the next events, and now we have a lot of events in a row.”

Tsolov started Sunday’s Feature Race from second and ran in that position for much of the event, until he capitalised on a mistake by Invicta Racing rival Rafael Câmara.

The Brazilian had led every lap until pitted on Lap 34. However, he struggled with grip once he returned to the track allowing Tsolov to close in. The two went side-by-side down the main straight, with Câmara running deep into Turn 1.

With the Bulgarian close, the two nearly made contact and Campos admitted that he thought it was race over for Tsolov.

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“I was having a heart attack. It's not that I was nervous, it's that I was almost dying,” he joked. “We saw him struggling with the cold tyres, so we told Nikola that he was going to catch him.

“But the key was pushing him to make a mistake, and this is what happened. To be honest, at one point I thought that Rafa hit Nikola, so maybe we had some damage, but it was not the case.

“He suddenly said the car is okay and from there on, we just put in some safe pace, quick enough to be safe from Dunne behind, and that was the race at the end. No mistakes. If we could have the fastest lap, it was okay. If not, no problem.”

It was Campos’ second time celebrating under the podium this weekend, with León having won the Sprint Race on Saturday.

The Mexican driver had looked set to challenge Câmara for pole in Group A, but hit the wall on his final lap, and had to settle for P5 which wound up being a P1 start for the Sprint.

León led every lap of the race to claim his second victory of the season, following on from his Sprint success in Montreal. But for Campos, it was not a result that he feels his driver should have had if qualifying had played out how he wanted.

“They are performing very, very well,” said Campos on his drivers. “It's good that Noel won yesterday, but to be honest, he shouldn't have won yesterday because he should have been starting further in the front.

“He deserved to be fighting for pole on Friday. He showed the pace, and a small mistake touching the wall prevented him from being at least in the two front rows today.

“So that would have meant that yesterday he would have started a bit further in the back. But today he would have been fighting for the podium because he has shown a lot of speed during this weekend.”

Next on the calendar for Campos and the rest of the paddock is Barcelona, the Spanish team’s home race.

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Last season, they won the Feature Race from pole with Arvid Lindblad, and with the team currently at the top of the Teams’ Standings with 107 points – leading Rodin Motorsport by 11 points – confidence is high within the group.

“I feel excited,” said Campos previewing this weekend’s action. “Now we have a home race weekend where we won last year with Arvid. Why can't repeat it this year. I think the team is motivated to do so.

“Nikola is doing good, Noel is also doing very good, and anything can happen. But for sure we will be strong.”