The Brazilian scored the most points in the fifth round of the F2 World Championship
The fifth round of the F2 World Championship came to an end this Sunday (23). Sergio, who is driving for the French team DAMS, got pole position, came in second in the race on Saturday and, on Sunday, came in fifth. With the result, the driver rose two positions in the standings and now is in the fourth place with 80 points.
After an exceptional start to the weekend, when he had the best time in the free practice and got the pole position on Friday, Sérgio remained extremely confident for the first race, which was held on Saturday afternoon. At the start, after a small slip of the # 5 car, the Brazilian managed to remain in the first group, however, falling to third place. Still in the first lap, the virtual safety-car was on because of an accident in turn three. Two laps later, with another incident on the mixed part of the circuit and a broken down car on turn one, the race officials interrupted the race with a red flag. About 20 minutes later, with the track cleared, the re-release was authorized. Sérgio kept pace together with the top two. With eight laps completed the Brazilian was among the first to make his mandatory pit stop and replaced the soft tyres by the hard ones until the end of the race. After the round of pit stops for all the drivers, Sérgio was still in third, about two seconds behind Jack Aitken. With the same strong rhythm shown in the practice, Sette approached the competitor and, with three laps to the end, took the second place. By this time the leader had already opened considerable advantage and, with that, the Brazilian received the checkered flag in the second position.
Due to the reverse rule of the grid for the Sprint race, this Sunday Sette Câmara lined up his car on the fourth row of the grid, in seventh place. After a good start he managed to jump to fifth place but, boxed between two competitors on the first corner, he chose to be conservative and remained in seventh place. Aware of the good set up of his car, he remained within a short distance of the opponents in front of him, however, without attacking them in the initial laps. In the second half of the race, Sérgio went on to make fast laps, he fought a great duel with his teammate Nicholas Latiffi (CAN) and at the end of the 21 laps he finished in the fifth place.
“I can say that I am quite satisfied with my performance here in France. The team handed me a very fast and reliable car since the free practice. The pole position came to confirm the work of both the team and my staff, in preparation for the whole weekend. In yesterday’s race, I accelerated a little more than necessary and the car lost a little traction in the start, making me lose the first two positions. In the race, however, our pace continued very well and I got second place. Today I was able to get better and, in a race where you need to take good care of the tyres, we could manage the tyrewear well to have a good set in the final laps. I am very happy for the points in the Championship and we will be packing for Austria next week, “concluded the 21-year-old.
With all four points from pole position, the 18 points from the second position of yesterday’s race and the six points from the fifth position today, Sergio Sette added up 28 points and was the driver who scored the most points at the weekend. After the fifth round, the F2 World Championship standings show Nyck Devries (HOL) in the lead with 121 points followed by Latiffi with 109; Jack Aitken (ENG), with 85 and Sérgio Sette Câmara, with 80 points.
The sixth round of the competition, which marks exactly half of the Championship, will be held next weekend at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria.
Photo: Dutch Photo Agency
Journalist in charge: Flávio Quick