Rafael Câmara remains the only repeat pole winner in Formula 2 this season following another fast Friday from the Ferrari academy driver, this time in Silverstone. The Invicta Racing driver finished 0.201 seconds ahead of Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne in qualifying today, with ART Grand Prix’s Kush Maini a further thousandth of a second behind in third. Feeder Series spoke to the top three in the post-qualifying press conference. 

By Cliona Sheerin

Câmara is the only driver of the top four in the championship to have taken a pole position this year. Not only that, he is the only one of his competitors to have set the pace in qualifying on multiple occasions.

The last time he did so, he went on to convert his pole into victory in the Barcelona feature race, a precedent that stands him in good stead on Sunday.

“Definitely it’s a good chance [to take the win]. Starting from P1 of course makes your life easier but … Monaco was not the case. 50/50 … maybe I crash [on Sunday],” Câmara joked to Feeder Series in the post-qualifying press conference. “Jokes aside, just focusing race by race, we will see how we go, make sure we prepare in a good way, that we are ready for every scenario.”

It was not the easiest of starts to the session for Câmara or Dunne, with both drivers’ first laps being deleted for exceeding track limits at Turns 1 and 13 respectively. They quickly rectified those missteps, however, as they became the two exceptions to the majority of the field in being able to extract enough grip from their soft tyres to improve on a second lap around the 5.891-kilometre circuit.

Dunne led the way after the first runs were completed with a time of 1:40.536, with Câmara 0.235s behind in third. The pair sandwiched Maini, who was quickest after everyone’s first laps with a 1:40.764.

Other championship protagonists were further down after the first runs. At the halfway point, championship leader Gabriele Minì was languishing down in 13th position, with his closest title rival Nikola Tsolov sitting in eighth. 

Given the track evolution seen in practice — a session also headed up by Dunne and Câmara – no one was willing to replicate what Noel León did in qualifying last time out in Spielberg and take a chance by running in the mid-session lull. 

When the drivers did re-emerge from the pits, Oliver Goethe, Mari Boya and Minì all briefly went to the top of the standings, but Minì’s 1:40.382 was quickly supplanted by Tsolov with a time 0.410s faster. Roman Bilinski then crossed the line with the fastest time by five thousandths before Maini was back on top once more. 

All of these improvements meant Câmara had tumbled to 16th in the order by the time it was his turn to complete his flying lap, but he too was able to benefit from the track’s evolution and fresh soft Pirellis to claim the top spot with a 1:39.690. Dunne, who had fallen to 12th by this point, then slotted into second, just over two tenths adrift of Câmara but ahead of his fellow Alpine Academy driver Maini by one millisecond. 

And that proved to be that for F2 qualifying in Silverstone. Despite plenty of time remaining on the clock to try for a second attempt, the majority of the field bailed into the pits with no more left in the tank for an improvement, having extracted all they could from their soft tyres.

“Quali is lighter with the car and also better grip, so it’s a nice feeling when you’re driving,” Câmara told Feeder Series. “The grip difference is very big – as we saw, two and a half seconds between quali and FP – so a big jump, [but I] was feeling good.”

The drivers now turn their attention to the weekend’s races, with wind, tyre degradation and slipstream among the factors they and their teams will have to consider.

“Silverstone is quite consistent every year, seems to always get down to a similar time every year,” said fourth-year F2 driver Maini. “I think the biggest thing here is not track grip but more the wind. The high gusts and a small change of wind can completely change Maggots and Becketts. We don’t really have corners like that anywhere, so keeping an eye on the wind is important.

“Also, with the DRS tomorrow, it can be strong, the slipstream, or it can be very weak. Now everything changes, really – goes to the race pace and keeping your tyres in the best condition and also seeing where to be strong to make the moves and where the wind is. It’s funny how things change on Friday and the whole mindset changes.”

Rodin’s Dunne will be going in search of his first win this season on a track he enjoys and one where he took a feature race podium last year. 

“It felt pretty good,” Dunne told Feeder Series. “A quali lap in general around here on softs is probably one of the most enjoyable ones of the year. Copse, Maggots, Becketts, Stowe section in general is super fun as a driver and one that I really enjoy. Heading into the race, I think managing deg here is always tricky because the car needs to be performing well at high speed, but then you also need good traction for corners like Turn 4, 7, 17. So definitely, this track is not easy for the engineer’s job on that side of things.

“As a driver, there’s a lot of things you need to manage as well, so I imagine it to not be the easiest race in the world. There’s quite a few things we need to look after, but we will prepare for it the best we can.”

Although it was an anticlimactic ending to qualifying with MP Motorsport’s Goethe the sole driver taking the chequered flag on track, it took nothing away from Câmara’s impressive third pole position of the season, and he is now two points closer to bridging the gap in the championship to Minì and Tsolov in front. 

Still, by qualifying 10th, the championship leader will line up first for tomorrow’s sprint race, while Tsolov will start fifth in Sunday’s feature after rounding out a top five covered by 0.282s. Ahead of the Bulgarian came Polish-British driver Bilinski, who finished fourth in both of Friday’s sessions, and behind was Maini’s teammate Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, with both ART cars qualifying in the top 10 for the first time since the opening round in Melbourne.

Joshua Dürksen and Rafael Villagómez will line up on row four in the feature race, while Minì will be joined on the front row tomorrow by Ritomo Miyata, who finished ninth.

It was a qualifying session to forget for last week’s polesitter León, who ended up 16th, while Martinius Stenshorne finished just behind him in 17th and outside of the top 10 in qualifying for the third round in a row.

The entire 22-car grid was covered by 1.282s. 

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency