Breakdowns in free practice and crashes during the race left the Brazilian far from points in the eighth stage of Formula E
The streets of Monte Carlo, in Monaco, hosted the eighth stage of the Formula E World Championship this Saturday (27). Exactly on the same circuit that traditionally hosts Formula 1, the 22 drivers participating in the competition were able to extract the maximum from their electric machines.
Coming from stages of growth in the Championship, Brazilian Sérgio Sette Câmara arrived excited in Monaco and, together with the ERT Formula E team, prepared his entire schedule for the two practice sessions that would take place before qualifying and the race.
As scheduled in the official program, all activities were carried out this Saturday with the first practice session authorized at 7:30 a.m. local time. Unfortunately, Sérgio failed to complete even half of the laps planned for the two sessions. In the first session, the brake and energy regeneration system was not working, and in the second session, the driveshaft of the car broke. The team did an excellent job to recover everything for the qualifying session, but as a result, the 25-year-old went blindly into the official classification. Despite facing completely adverse conditions, the Brazilian put his talent and knowledge of the traditional Monte Carlo track into practice, securing the 11th position on the starting grid with a time of 1m31s188, on the sixth row.
Excited to have completed the laps of qualifying and felt that the car was ready for the race, Sette Câmara proceeded to it. After a conscious start, where he tried to avoid the collisions of the first corner, the driver dropped to 12th place. In a frantic pace, the race unfolded in the early laps and Sérgio, very boldly, began his recovery. With beautiful overtakes, the driver reached seventh place on the eighth lap, but then received a hit that punctured the right rear tire of his car. With nothing else to do, he took car #3 to the pits for the change, losing a lot of time and dropping to the last place in the race, and worse, far from the pack.
Sette continued in a lonely race, hoping for the entry of a safety car that could at least put him back in the pack. His wish was granted when on lap 23 Nico Muller hit the wall, forcing the safety car to come out. Unfortunately, however, by this time, Sérgio no longer had enough time to stage a recovery and, at the end of the 31 laps, he received the checkered flag in 19th place.
“It was truly a weekend to forget. Different problems with the car in both practices and, in the race, I was doing really well, I was already in seventh, when someone hit my car and punctured my right rear tire. It is a shame because after the issues, we managed to fix the car for qualifying and we were very fast. All we can do now is lift our heads and focus on the next stage,” commented the driver sponsored by MRV and Bet7K.
The Formula E World Championship calendar will resume in two weeks, for the 9th and 10th stages of the year. The races will take place in Berlin, Germany, at the circuit set up at Tempelhoff Airport.
Pictures: ERT Formula E | Disclosure
Press office of Sérgio Sette Câmara
Responsible journalist: Flávio Quick