Rafa Camara recovered from a crash to take a ‘tricky’ maiden Formula 2 pole position around the notoriously punishing Monaco.
On the final corner of his first push lap, Camara made contact with the wall, which left him dragging his Invicta back to the pit lane.
Luckily for Camara, a Red Flag was brought out when John Bennett met the wall in Turn 1. The stop in the session gave the Brazilian driver time for Invicta to repair his car, allowing him to return to the track for the final half of the session.
He told Motorsport Week and other media that he was happy with the result, even if it came with the mid-session stress.
“It was a very good feeling. Not the way we wanted, for sure, because this time I think it was a bit too much for everyone.
“Very happy, very grateful for the team, all the work they did repairing the car and giving me the opportunity to go back on track again and try the last push.”
The Brazilian driver admitted that incidents around Monaco can knock a driver’s confidence, especially under the added pressure of needing to deliver a strong flying lap.
The fear of crashing
For Camara, the pressure was twofold: beyond the pole lap, he also had the pressure of the championship, as he sits second, just 19 points behind Gabriele Mini.
“It’s not a good thing in qualy because after you lose a bit of confidence, and you put yourself in a position where basically you do a good lap, where basically you’re going to crash again, especially in Monaco.
“In Montreal, it’s a bit safer, but here, yeah, I use the track also, which you need to have the confidence to do a lap. I just put everything into the last push, and I think I was probably going to crash.”
Despite the closing walls and the risk of crashing, Camara knew from the second he embarked on his lap that it was a strong lap.
“I was expecting to be a good lap, and I did, it was a very good one. Very happy with that and still a lot of jobs to do.”
Camara came out on track with just three minutes left in the qualifying session. Without the Red Flag, his qualifying session would’ve been over, and he spoke about his mindset in the pit lane and then for the final few minutes.
“I was trying to keep it calm.” He said, “I was with some hope that I was going to get at least another push, but I was obviously not very happy.
“With my engineer, we spoke quite a lot about building up through the session and taking the first lap to just understand how the car is, how the grip is on the track. I did a bit, in a way, a stupid mistake.”
A surprise pole position
For the Invicta driver, it was all about focusing on the aspects he could control.
“But yeah, just trying to be cool and make sure that I was getting everything on the last lap. I’ve been lucky as well with the red flag that we were able to do one prep and have the tyres ready for the last push.
“I think we managed to be quite focused and calm for the last push and were able to do a good lap.”
However, while Camara knew he’d managed a good lap, he didn’t expect to be on pole.
“Not expecting really to be on pole.” He told Motorsport Week and other media, “Obviously, just trying to do the best that I could at the moment, trying to maximise every corner.
“Not really thinking about where we’re going to be, but just trying to maximise in the moment. I was not feeling perfect because it was just not feeling great, but I was just trying to focus on what I needed to do.
“Try to put everything in place that we saw in FP as well, looking at all the home boards from the past years and make sure that everything was going to be there. So, trying to be a clean lap, and yeah, in the end it was good enough.”
A different kind of qualifying
Monaco is unique in its qualifying format, splitting the field into two separate groups which take to the track one after another. Camara was in Group A, which allowed him to take provisional pole and eagerly watch on to see if anyone could beat his time.
The Invicta driver said that he liked that aspect of qualifying. Especially around a track like Monaco, where just watching a car thread through the tight-walled streets is thrilling in itself.
“To be honest, it’s quite nice in a way that it’s always enjoyable to watch qualifying in Monaco, especially to see how close to the wall we’re going and how close to crashing the car, being very on the limits and being able to do a good lap.
“So it’s quite enjoyable to watch. Obviously, I was hoping to stay on pole, in the end, it happened. I don’t think you need to worry much.
“What you can do is just at the time, at the moment, what you can control. And after that, you just wait for what is going to happen. And yeah, just wait and enjoy a bit of qualifying.”
READ MORE: Rafael Camara claims maiden F2 pole position in style at Monaco
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