Formula Regional – Camara in the points in Barcelona

Rafael was unlucky in qualifying and was then hampered by the difficulty in overtaking at this track. Maya Weug’s performance was also compromised by her qualifying.

The second round of the FIA Formula Regional championship did not live up to expectations for the Ferrari Driver Academy duo of Maya Weug and Rafael Camara. A tricky qualifying affected the rest of the weekend for both of them, given how difficult it proved to be to overtake in the two races. Camara finished close to the points in Race 1 and finished sixth in the second one, which puts him sixth in the standings on 23 points.

“I think we had good pace this weekend,” commented the Brazilian. “Unfortunately, in the second qualifying session, we didn’t manage to set up the car to our liking and I ended up outside the top ten. In Race 1, it soon became clear that overtaking would not be easy and I lost some time because of a collision in front of me on the opening lap. But when I had a clear track ahead of me, my pace was very good. I was expecting more from the second race, but at least we scored good points for the championship. As from tomorrow, we will start preparing as well as possible for the next round in Budapest.”

Race 1. Qualifying was a struggle because of a less than ideal technical set-up and Camara had to start from eleventh place. He got off the line very well to move up to eighth, but coming into turn 4, a collision between Dilano Van’t Hoff and Sami Meguetounif, just ahead of him, meant he had to brake early and that cost him five places. The collision brought out the red flag while the cars were removed from the gravel trap and once the race was on again, Rafael passed Owen Tangavelou and then Victor Bernier as he set off in pursuit of the top ten. At this point, he was one of the quickest on track, but with four minutes remaining, the Safety Car came out and the order stayed the same to the chequered flag. After qualifying 20th, Weug’s race was linear and she finished in the same position.

Race 2. For the second race at Montmelo, Camara started from sixth and Weug from the twelfth row. After a hectic opening lap, the Safety Car came out after which there were no changes of position in the top ten, because it proved difficult to follow another car closely enough to pass and so Rafael and Maya both finished where they started.