Rafael Câmara clinched pole position in Friday’s Qualifying session at Spa-Francorchamps. The Invicta driver pushed the limits until the very end of the session, putting in a pole deserving laptime during the frantic final minutes.
The session wasn’t easy. With multiple red flags, the grid faced laps being annulled or aborted. The final dash came after cars were released following the second red flag period, but Câmara put in a 1:56.306, claiming top of the leader board.
“Yeah it feels good, intense qualifying. At the beginning we didn’t really know if it was going to be wet or dry but it made our life a bit easier as it stopped raining. So after that it’s just make the basics work well and preparing your own things. So on the second run just finding a bit to the set up to make sure you have good balance and a clean lap after.”
Going into the session, weather conditions were uncertain. The grid faced patches of rain droplets early on, but the clouds eventually cleared. This did not stop the red flags from waving, firstly for a spin from Campos’ Noel Léon, then for a stranded Van Hoepen.
This brought new challenges for the drivers, with many forced to abort flying laps after careful preparation and a new set of Supersofts. The session resumed with only three and a half minutes to go, meaning drivers had one lap to push their cars to the limit.
“It was a bit of a mess after the red flag, for everyone I think. Some drivers did a full lap basically, so yeah it was a bit tricky to come back and then cool down and go back again.”
“I mean you go into T1 without DRS and after T5 without DRS again so you need to maybe be a bit more committed in Sector 2. You know you need to gain time there and then yeah, it’s a bit strange going in fully committed after you get a red flag and then needing to go again. I’m sure it’s not easy but we managed well and it was altogether a good lap after.”
With a strong improvement, Câmara earnt his fourth pole of the 2026 season, ahead of Inthraphuvasak and Dunne.
This pole position is a strong start to the weekend from Câmara, who currently sits third in the Drivers’ Championship behind Tsolov and Minì. However, with both drivers starting behind him for Saturday’s Sprint Race, the Brazilian will look to pick up vital points and a strong result.
“It’ll be very nice. Last time was not the case, not got the best start so hopefully this one we get a clean one and we can go ahead with a clean race. So yeah, looking forward to the races and hopefully tomorrow also we can have a good race and a good weekend.”
You can catch more Formula 2 action when Saturday’s Sprint Race begins at 14:15 CEST (BST +1).
