Rafael Câmara took his second Formula 2 pole position in a row in the fifth round at Barcelona on Friday, Joshua Dürksen, Câmara’s Invicta Racing teammate, qualified second, but he was handed a five-place grid penalty for both races as his time was completed under yellow-flag conditions, meaning Alex Dunne, 0.225 seconds behind Câmara, has been elevated to the front row for the feature race.

By Martin Lloyd

In a series that is often so frantic, Câmara’s pole position was anything but. The 21-year-old only needed to set one fast lap in the session, a 1:24.810 posted with 15:32 left on the clock. While others around Câmara – including Dunne, Dürksen and Laurens van Hoepen – threatened to topple him, no one could overhaul the Brazilian rookie at the top of the timesheets.

It marks not only his second F2 pole in a row after his session-topping effort last weekend in Monaco but also his second pole on a bounce in Barcelona, where he set the fastest lap in qualifying and won the feature race in his F3 title campaign last year.

“The session, I think, went very well,” Câmara said in the post-session press conference. “I really was able to get a very good lap on lap one. In Barcelona, you always need to deliver in that one lap because [the] tyres don’t last very long. Already from FP, I was feeling a good feeling with the car. I think we started in a very good place, and then qualifying was just looking at things and putting everything together for both runs.

“Unfortunately, [we] couldn’t get the second lap, but it was good enough to be on pole, and now we’re just focusing for the races on Saturday and Sunday.”

Câmara’s serene route to pole position belied the unconventional nature of Friday’s qualifying session. In a standard F2 session, the field would generally exit the pits together on two occasions, at the start of a session and again with about 10 minutes remaining, attempting to complete at least two flying laps on each set of tyres. On Friday, given that the teams had realised that optimal tyre performance could only be sustained for one lap, they decided to leave the pits in a much more staggered fashion. Therefore, rather than set a flurry of laps at the start of the session, drivers and teams prioritised clean air to complete their one attempt per run. 

Championship leader Minì was among the first to set a competitive lap time, a 1:25.652 with 24:22 left in the session, which was immediately beaten by drivers including Rodin’s Martinius Stenshorne, Dunne and Dürksen. Colton Herta then set the new benchmark from that group, a 1:25.387, with 23:38 remaining.

Interestingly, Dürksen was on a different strategy to his teammate, who was the last car to leave the garage in another flurry of drivers that included Nikola Tsolov and Kush Maini. Tsolov, who won the Monte Carlo feature race on Sunday, was 0.042s faster than his ART Grand Prix rival as they jumped to first and second. But his time was quickly blown out of the water by Câmara’s effort, a 1:24.810 that was 0.412s faster. At this point, with just over half of the 30-minute session remaining, it seemed unlikely that his time would be beaten. 

His time was followed by a brief lull as teams and drivers waited until 10 minutes remained before beginning their final runs. With five minutes remaining, the track was more busy than it had been at any previous time during the session, and multiple drivers improved. Dunne moved to second, before he was beaten by Dürksen, whose time was 0.135s slower than Câmara’s.

Dürksen’s lap, however, was not in compliance with the rules. He had travelled at full speed through the final corner, where yellow flags came out because of a spin for Ritomo Miyata, who was directly in front of him. That incident caused the session to be red-flagged with 3:41 remaining. Other drivers on fast laps – including Trident’s Van Hoepen, who was just 0.071s away from Câmara after two sectors – were left to wonder what could have been.

While some drivers forayed onto the track after the session resumed, most were at a disadvantage. All had started to prepare or attempt their final flying laps when the red flags were flown, and as a result, their tyres were past their best when they attempted to run again. The only drivers to improve were Oliver Goethe, up to 15th from 19th at the red flag, and Emmo Fittipaldi Jr, up to 18th from 22nd.

Tyres were a fundamental issue for many drivers in the session, but Dunne felt that the issues would have been worse without the drivers’ extensive knowledge of the Barcelona track. All 22 drivers appeared at the circuit for pre-season testing in February, while all bar Varrone have raced at it in other European junior single-seater categories.

“How difficult it is is probably masked by the fact that all of us have done a thousand laps of Barcelona,” he told Feeder Series. “If we were to have [this situation] at some other tracks through the year where we all have less mileage, I think it would seem a lot more difficult.

“We have a [45]-minute practice session in the morning, and realistically, all of us only did two meaningful laps, and then you have two laps that matter in quali. In theory, there’s so much opportunity for driving time between those sessions, and in that amount of time, we only do four proper laps. It is difficult to manage.”

With some drivers unable to set their final laps, the usual pecking order of the grid has been slightly altered. Behind Dunne in third was Minì, with Rafael Villagómez qualifying an impressive fifth for Van Amersfoort Racing at the circuit where he took his maiden F2 podium in 2025. Tsolov was sixth ahead of Nicolás Varrone in seventh. They will all be promoted one place on the feature race grid with Dürksen’s penalty, which he received in addition to two penalty points on his racing licence. The Paraguayan will now start seventh for the feature race and 14th for the sprint race.

Herta’s eighth place represents his season-best qualifying result, with Maini and Noel León rounding out the top 10. The Mexican has won the last two sprint races and will start on sprint pole for the second consecutive round on Saturday.

Practice pacesetter Van Hoepen qualified 13th with his first lap. Meanwhile, Catalonia-born driver Mari Boya was only 20th as Prema’s dismal start to the season continued. Miyata had originally qualified 13th, but his off during qualifying cost him his best lap, dropping him below 107 per cent of the polesitter’s time. He has been given permission to start both races from the back of the grid.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency