Brazilian was taken out of the first race in Baku and had to try a recovery race on Sunday
The Baku circuit in Azerbaijan received the second round of the F2 World Championship this weekend. Sérgio Sette Câmara (YOUSE | BMG | MRV | CCR | CBMM | CEMIG | GASMIG | COPASA) had a good strategy to win important points for the Championship but after suffering a hit in the first race, his podium possibilities went downhill.
After a very good opening of the Championship in Bahrain, Sette was very excited about the race in Azerbaijan, where he could continue working on the path towards the title of the season. Sergio is very close to the DAMS engineers and started his activities on the track with a walk around the track, in all its 6,003 meters. At that moment, the driver and the engineers checked the last details previously set in the simulator and prepared the configuration of the car for the activities.
In the only practice session of the weekend, he chose to test a different adjustment in his car and, not really concerned about the lap time, provided to the engineers important details about the reactions of the car in the different points of the circuit. The qualifying session was held late on Friday and, with the mark of 1’55s677 he recorded the fourth fastest time ensuring a place on the second row of the grid.
He was very excited about the first race. After a careful start and paying very close attention to the dangers of a fast street circuit, Sérgio tried to stay on track in the first turns and then go for the attack. He was quite fast in the first few laps and made the most out of the grip of the soft tyres, and on the seventh lap, he pitted and then returned to the track with the medium tyres that should last until the end of the 29 laps. In his third year in the category, Sérgio already knew the secrets of the track and with that, he chose to save his tyres in the first laps after the pit to have newer compounds in the last decisive laps. The strategy seemed to be working very well, especially when there was an accident 10 laps to the end of the race, that caused the entrance of the safety car and with that, all the differences between the cars disappeared. It was a very good opportunity for a driver who had tyres in that state. Sergio was anxious and ready when, the Italian driver Luca Ghiotto, who was just behind him, hit the back of Sette’s car just before the re-start, throwing him to the wall. Outraged, Sérgio had to leave the race.
On Sunday, as the starting grid formation of the second race is based on the result of the first, Sérgio lined up his car at the end of the group. Aware that he had a very fast car in his hands and, considering that race 2 has no pit stop, Sergio started his recovery race. In an extremely troubled event, full of accidents, the safety car had to enter the track three times. Even with very little time on the open track, the # 5 car managed to beautifully overtake another driver and recieved the checkered flag in the fifth place. As a way to minimize the damage Sette still managed two extra points for having achieved the best lap of the race the time of 1’57s941.
“There is nothing to be said. I’m very disappointed with what happened. The very driver who hit me wrote on his Instagram that he was an idiot. He was penalized by the organization, but the damage he caused me in the Championship was big. I know he did not mean it, he’s a good guy, but it happened. Today I did what I could. There were a lot of accidents, several laps with a safety car, and with that, I had few “useful” laps to climb up the group. I certainly expect a better result in Barcelona, my home race,” said Sergio, who lives in the town of Saint Cougat, on the outskirts of Barcelona.