This Sunday, the 11th and penultimate round of the F2 World Championship ended. The disputes took place on the street circuit surrounding the Sochi Olympic Park in Russia and were once again attended by 20 competitors.
In the direct fight for the F1 Super-License, the Brazilian driver Sérgio Sette Câmara (YOUSE | BMG | MRV | CCR | CBMM | CEMIG | GASMIG | COPASA) came very well prepared for the weekend’s disputes. and together with the French team DAMS did its best in the search for the best results.
The free practice and qualifying session took place on Friday. In the practice, Sette managed to impose a good pace and, even facing one of the most competitive grids of recent years of the F2, he could get the second best mark. In the qualifying session, however, the DAMS car # 5 failed to make a big improvement over the training schedule and its direct competitors made significant improvements. Thus, with the 1m48s31 mark, he got the sixth position on the starting grid for Saturday’s race.
The first race of the weekend was held in the late Russian afternoon. Following a strategy of starting with soft tyres it was expected that the first stint of car # 5 would be a few laps. Shortly after the start was allowed, Sette managed to keep his position, but still, in the first corner, he was squeezed by two opponents and, not to crash, he was forced to practically stop the car. With that, even then, he fell to ninth place. The race followed its course at high speed, but the tyre wear was extremely high. Thus, with only six laps completed, Sergio entered to make his pit stop when he ha,d already plummeted to 14th place. With new tyres, this time with intermediate hardness compounds, the 21-year-old managed to impose an excellent pace. Several times he recorded the fastest lap of the race and, in a great recovery, received the finishing flag in the fifth position.
The result of yesterday’s race allowed Sérgio to start this Sunday from the fourth place. In a good start he managed to keep his place, but in the same corner that he had problems the day before, one fact determined the luck of his race. In a virtually suicidal manoeuvre, the Swiss Louis Deletraz tried to pass two competitors at once and finally nearly hitting Sergio’s car. To avoid the hit, the Brazilian drove his car through the exhaust area, returned to the track with the loss of one position and went back to the race in fifth. Shortly thereafter, still on the same lap, the race was stopped due to an accident. After a long period of recovery of the circuit, the race was restarted and Sérgio, in excellent manoeuvre, managed to recover the fourth place. Two laps later, however, the race management reported that the Brazilian’s car had broken the track limits in the manoeuvre to deflect Deletraz, so the driver would have a five-second penalty in his final race time. Outraged, Sergio complained a lot to his engineer on the radio but continued his race. With a good pace, he was very close to his opponents. However, due to the long interruption time of the race, the commissioners decided to reduce the race from 21 to 15 laps and, as a result, he did not have enough time to open more advantage to the others, thus ending with sixth place in the race (after crossing the finish line in fourth).
“For the second consecutive weekend, I am penalized for a manoeuvre I have done to protect me and keep everyone safe. I honestly can’t understand the logic these commissioners are using to punish me. I had no other way to go, otherwise I would create another crash point. I think they should invite more drivers to be with them, people who have actually experienced track situations inside. I believe it could greatly minimize such questionable decisions that they are making, ”said the driver.
With one more race until the end, the Dutchman Nick De Vryes is the winner of the F2 Championship. Sette is currently in fourth place with 165 points, which would give him exactly the points needed to have the permanent license to compete in the F1 (Super-License).
The 12th and final step of the Championship will be hosted in exactly 60 days from now at the Yas Marina Race Track in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Photo: Dutch Photo Agency | Publicity
Media Relations Office for the driver Sergio Sette Câmara:
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Journalist in charge: Flávio Quick