Invicta Racing’s Rafael Câmara took his first pole position in Formula 2 in Monaco on Friday afternoon, beating Nikola Tsolov’s group B benchmark by just 0.130 seconds. The Brazilian had hit the wall on his first attempt, damaging his suspension and spending much of the session in the pits, but recovered to set a pole time of 1:20.923 on his final run. 

By August Bamford 

Câmara’s pole position was completed in dramatic fashion. After Câmara touched the barriers at Antony Noghès with nine minutes remaining, his Invicta team worked frantically to repair the car. Aided by a late red flag, Câmara was able to rejoin the pack for just two final flying laps, and the Ferrari junior delivered when it mattered most, kissing the barriers at the final corner again on his way to his maiden pole. 

From his pit wall, Câmara watched on as group B attempted to trump his time, but nobody was able to dislodge him from the top of the timesheets. Campos’ Nikola Tsolov put himself on top of Group B by two tenths of a second over Rodin Motorsport’s Martinius Stenshorne, while Stenshorne’s teammate Alex Dunne secured third on the provisional grid, 0.110 seconds slower than Câmara’s group A–leading effort.

“I think this session, I was not really able to build that confidence for the runs,” Câmara explained to Feeder Series in the post-qualifying press conference. “For me, the red flag was a good thing as I was able to come back and give that last little push. I was just trying to put everything into place in the last lap, even if I didn’t really have the confidence. I was just trying to put in place what I saw before, what I had spoken about with my engineers, putting everything in place for that last push.”

As is unique to Monaco in F2, qualifying was split into two separate 16-minute sessions, with the odd-numbered cars in group A and even-numbered cars in group B running separately to minimise traffic on the narrow street circuit. The fastest driver across both groups would take pole position, while the quickest driver from the other group would line up alongside them on the front row. The remainder of the grid alternated between the two groups, with the fifth-fastest driver in the slower group also securing reverse-grid pole for the sprint race.

Câmara was not the only driver who struggled to find rhythm in Monaco qualifying, with several others brushing the barriers throughout the session. Campos’ Noel León narrowly avoided a crash after running deep into a corner, Dunne suffered a major snap through Rascasse, and Prema’s Sebastián Montoya also made contact with the barriers at Mirabeau.

Dino Beganovic emerged as the mid-session pacesetter as incidents continued to mount. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak struck the barriers at Rascasse, before John Bennett crashed heavily at Sainte Dévote with less than four minutes remaining, bringing out a red flag and setting up a dramatic conclusion to the session.

“I think Monaco is a bit different to other places,” Dunne said. “I’d almost say that in other tracks a red flag would interrupt you more than it does here because a red flag on this track is always expected. Pretty much every year, whether it’s qualifying, free practice or a race, there’s always going to be at least one red flag, so you have to build in a bit of margin and expect it to come at some point. When it does come, you’re more ready than you would be at other tracks. 

“It is difficult, though – tyre temps and brake temps are tricky here because the lap is so short and there aren’t many straights. But overall we’re all at a pretty high level, so resetting quickly and getting back out again is something we’re all relatively good at now.”

The stoppage proved pivotal for Câmara, giving Invicta ample time to complete an impressive repair job during the interruption so that the Brazilian could rejoin for the closing minutes. As the chequered flag approached, drivers found significant improvements on their final runs. León brushed the wall once again but briefly moved to the top of the timesheets before Câmara responded with a decisive lap to secure pole position. 

Dunne slotted into second in the group ahead of Beganovic and Minì, while León’s fifth-place effort secured him a front-row start for the reverse-grid race on Saturday.

Group B was no less tumultuous, with Kush Maini triggering an early red flag after colliding with Laurens van Hoepen at the Nouvelle chicane with 13 minutes remaining. The Trident driver was left stranded on the kerbs, ending his session before a representative lap had been set. Maini received a three-place grid drop for both races as well as one penalty point for causing the incident.

Once running resumed with 12:28 remaining, a fight for the fastest time developed between Maini, Tsolov, Stenshorne, Joshua Dürksen and Oliver Goethe. The benchmark steadily tumbled, but even as track evolution continued, group A’s ultimate pace remained out of reach.

Stenshorne briefly looked set to secure a front-row start after jumping to the top of the group, but Tsolov delivered one final Monaco special, brushing the wall through the Swimming Pool section on his way to improving to a 1:21.053 and reclaiming the top spot in the group. That result secured him a front-row start for Sunday’s race. 

“My session wasn’t too interrupted,” Tsolov said. “We just had one [red flag] in the beginning of the session, so it was kind of calmer. But it was going to be difficult for me if there was more because we were second to last in the pit lane, so we were definitely in a bit of danger. But it didn’t happen, so I’m glad.”

Câmara’s time was still more than a tenth faster than Tsolov’s time, confirming the Invicta driver as the Monaco polesitter. Tsolov will line up alongside him on the front row, with the Rodin Motorsport duo of Dunne and Stenshorne sharing the second row. 

Beganovic and Maini qualified fifth and sixth, with championship leader Minì and DAMS’ Roman Bilinski behind them after each taking fourth in group. Dürksen was set to occupy pole position for the reverse-grid sprint race, but he received a penalty of his own for impeding Maini, which will drop him three places on the grid for both races. León, who qualified ninth, thus inherits sprint race pole with Bilinski alongside him, giving him a sterling opportunity to take back-to-back sprint race wins after his Montréal triumph.

Outside the top 10, Monaco punished several rookie drivers who had never previously raced around the treacherous streets. Hitech’s Colton Herta qualified 14th, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Nico Varrone 16th, and AIX Racing’s Emerson Fittipaldi Jr 20th. Bennett lost his best lap time for causing the red flag in the first session, but both he and teammate Van Hoepen will be allowed to start the races from the back row despite not setting laps within 107 per cent of the pole time.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency