Heavy rain affected all the free practice sessions during the Spielberg weekend, but there was a slight break for qualifying for Race 1 in which Rafael Camara was fourth in Group A and Taponen was eighth in Group B, although the Finn had to take a four place grid penalty carried over from the previous round in Imola.
Race-1. It was raining for the start, so all drivers were on wet weather tyres. The track gradually dried and in the mixed conditions, tyre wear was excessive. Camara fought hard from the start, but a few mistakes and chaos in the middle of the pack meant he didn’t make it into the points, taking the chequered flag in 11th place. The Brazilian’s misfortune should have allowed Taponen to close the gap in the standings but he too failed to get in the points, crossing the line behind Camara.
Race-2. The rain returned shortly before qualifying for race 2 and Camara did well to be second quickest in Group A, but Taponen was struggling with his car and was only eighth. On the opening lap, Camara collided while fighting with another driver at turn 3 and his front wing was broken. He pitted for a new one and rejoined at the back of the pack, doing a great job of fighting his way back to eighth. However, he was given a five second penalty for colliding with another car in the pit lane, which dropped him to 16th. Taponen’s race ended in the early stages after a collision with Valerio Rinicella.
The standings. “Overall, my pace was good,” commented Camara. “We had the speed, but it just wasn’t our weekend, we made some very costly mistakes. I’m a bit disappointed because the Spielberg track has always been a favourite of mine, but the weekend didn’t go smoothly and that didn’t help. But we’ll put this weekend behind us and focus on preparing very well for the final two rounds.” Camara still leads the championship on 239 points, with Taponen second on 178. The next round takes place in a fortnight at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit, with the final round in Monza over the last weekend in October.