Championship contender Rafael Câmara is rather pleased with a strong P3 finish in the 2026 F2 Qualifying session for the Spanish GP, held in Madrid. The Ferrari-backed driver overall safely managed a good position, in spite of a rather disrupted session.
A challenging F2 Spanish GP Qualifying for Câmara
In fact, Câmara’s first attempt before the first red flag, caused by Maini and Montoya’s crashes, saw him lull at the bottom of the top 10. Coming from a rather quick Monza racing weekend, which saw his distance to championship leader Tsolov cut from 24 points to only eleven, a more anonymous session could have hindered his fight for the title, especially at such a narrow street circuit, allowing less overtaking opportunities.
Instead, the Invicta Racing rookie driver was able to set a strong 1:44.853 within the final minutes left on the clock after the second session interruption, in spite of a big snap of oversteer in the final corner.
Speaking in the post-Qualifying press conference, attended by Pit Debrief, the young talent still felt content with the outcome of his session, especially considering the severe threats posed by the twisty Madring, as he recounted his experience after the end of the F2 Spanish GP.
“It wasn’t an easy quali. It was tricky to get the laps in, a lot of red flags, a lot of crashes. I think there was one mistake on my side, that lap could put us in a more comfortable position, not needing to rush so much in the last lap. But overall, happy with what we did today. I think in the end it was a good lap that put us in P3. From there on we focused on the races.”
A testing layout, affecting some of the most experienced drivers of the grid
Asked by Pit Debrief on his level of enjoyment of the debuting and rather challenging Madring after the first day of official, on track experience, Câmara admits he had a great experience, in spite of the high crash risk.
”It’s nice. I had some fun driving. I don’t know exactly where to rank it, but for sure it was a track that I enjoyed. I had some fun. You can feel a bit more adrenaline and you can see that if you do a mistake it costs a lot. So yeah, I think it was a fun track and let’s see how we’ll be in the races.”
One of the most troublesome aspects of being at a never-seen-before track was definitely having to find and fine tune the proper Qualifying setup with just one practice session of knowledge at hand. Especially with such a fragmented first approach, securing the much-needed feeling with the surface proved difficult, but eventually manageable for him.
“But yeah, overall it was a good session in qualy without any data in FP, I mean this was for everyone, but in a new track it’s not what you want. You want to have a good read and go into quali knowing what is going to happen. Overall it was a good quali. It was all in the last lap and it was very important to get that lap, because otherwise we were out of the top 10. So in the end, I think we can be happy with what we did today.”
High crash risk
The Madring confirmed Câmara’s first impressions as a narrow and threatening street circuit, with a propensity for crashing but presenting significant similarities with the tested layout on the simulator.
”For sure it’s not an easy track. I think it’s quite easy to make a mistake, especially at a new track where you don’t have a lot of grip, not a lot of rubber, so it’s very easy to make a mistake. But for sure, the driver’s point of view is very nice. You need to be very committed for that lap and you need to be very confident that you can… I mean, if you think really about the mistakes you can end up doing [them]. So it was a nice qualy, intense and nice track.”
The assistance and track knowledge developed from the simulator definitely aided Câmara on his quest for a good final result in the F2 Spanish GP Qualifying.
“We had a good sim model. Like Alex, I think we probably expected to be a bit quicker but in the end I think we were happy with what we did. We’re turning to the same places so that was good.”
No chance to get settled at the Madring
Another severity that affected and increased the hardships of the track was the lack of continuity caused by the three different red flags issued throughout the brief session. Ultimately, the rookie driver managed to get in the spot and secure a P3 starting position for the Feature Race, but he admitted it was not an easy feat.
“With the red flags it’s difficult to keep focused the whole time. It’s also difficult to create a momentum, build some momentum and definitely was not an easy one for me. Especially, getting the end of the session and without a really a decent lap for sure it was tricky to get the last lap and just close in a good way. It was a bit stressful for me on my side but then I was able to close well without risking too much and be in a good place, so I’m happy.”
Mentally challenging
He expanded on how not having a strong benchmark up until the latest part of the session impacted him from a mental point of view, highlighting the uncertainty he was feeling.
“It was not an easy thing when you put yourself in the position. For sure, it makes it a bit more stressful in the end without a representative lap. It makes you more stressed, thinking to just close the lap and be there in the top 10. Just really trying to focus on the moment and what I could control, and putting a lap down at the end.”
“So, that was a bit stressful but in the end we managed in a good way and now we’re in P3, in a good place for the races and for sure we can have a good weekend from here.”
Ultimately, Câmara admitted that in his own opinion of the track before ever stepping foot in the Madring, he had believed the final Qualifying pace for the F2 Spanish GP would be even harder, anticipating lower final lap times.
“In a way like I said we were expecting to even go quicker than what we went. So, getting a bit harder track temps and with the soft for sure was not easy to hold the tires in one lap. But yeah I think overall from FP to quali was a big amount of track evolution.”
