Rafael Câmara stormed to his first ever FIA Formula 2 Victory, taking home a maximum 27 points on Sunday, after delivering a tyre-management masterclass.
Câmara managed his soft tyres for an excruciating 22 laps, before peeling into pits whilst title challengers Alex Dunne and Gabriele Minì tussled for fourth on the road.
The Brazilian quickly caught up to the Alpine-backed pair, with a 10-lap tyre life advantage, and by Lap 30 Câmara passed Dunne to snatch his lead back off the Irishman.
Despite the Feature Race’s cinematic ending and result for the Ferrari-backed driver, Câmara’s race didn’t start how he may have hoped:
“I think the start was, we missed a bit, obviously losing the position going to P2 was not ideal but obviously just keep it cool.
“In a way it was good that I was able to stay in the DRS zone and not really use the tyres, so once Alex pitted I was able to extend quite a lot and in a good pace as well, so it was good to stay seven laps behind saving the tyres and after that was also just trying to extend as much as we could to avoid the traffic.”
Dunne, who initially led the pack after an unideal start for Câmara, eventually crossed the line in third place, 2.5 seconds behind championship leader Nikola Tsolov, and 12 seconds behind Câmara.
With a win and now three podiums to his name, the 21-year old continued, discussing how his season is really starting to smooth out, after a tricky few races before.
“I think since the beginning of the season things have been very good, obviously the last two races were not in our way, Montreal I think a bit of a stupid mistake on my side, Monaco in a way I was just taking a bit more margin in the outlap… so two mistakes from my side that obviously could be easily avoided.
“I think it was a lot of positives in these two weekends as well, even the other races were looking very strong, so I think since the beginning of the season I’ve been quite confident that we have a good pace and we have a good chance to be there in the fight.”
Now just 17 points shy of leading the drivers’ championship, it is all to play for the speedy Brazilian, and a strong performance at the Red Bull Ring later this month could easily see him snatch the top spot of fellow rookie Tsolov.
Image: Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images
