The Austrian Grand Prix proved to be a difficult task for Campos Racing and their drivers with pace compromised starting from the back due to red flag in qualifying
Campos Racing has experienced a difficult weekend at Red Bull Ring, home of the Austrian Grand Prix, as a result of a difficult qualifying that dashed all the chances for both races. Spaniards David Vidales and Pepe Martí and American Hunter Yeany made great efforts to fight back but it didn´t finally pay back in terms of points. In fact, Yeany was forced to miss race 2 after he cracked his left wrist following an incident on Saturday. The American racer will make his return after the summer break and will forced to miss the Hungarian Grand Prix later this month.
On Friday, Martí made a very positive start to the weekend by scoring a lap time of 1m20.835s. His teammates Yeany and Vidales scored lap times of 1m21.408s and 1m21.464s respectively. Unfortunately, they couldn’t unleash their full potential in qualifying as the trio of Campos Racing drivers was improving at the end of the season when the red flag came out. As the season wasn`t restarted again, Vidales and Martí were forced to start from row ten with lap times of 1m20.607s and 1m20.668s. Yeany was 23rd—fastest with lap time of 1m20.859s.
Race one saw a safety car deployed on lap 1 when Rafael Villagomez spun out. Unfortunately, Vidales had to pit as a clash damaged his front wing and the Spaniard had to change it. Back in green flag conditions, Martí had gained several places but he was pushed into the gravel and, despite he rejoined, the Spanish ace had lost several places. Another contact involved Yeany and Nazim Azman with the American still continuing in race despite a broken wrist as a result of heavy impact. After 21 laps, Martí’s recovery drive rewarded him with 13th place. Vidales, after his unscheduled pit stop, came in 18th place. Yeany, despite his physical struggles, took the checkered flag in 22nd place.
On Sunday, race 2 was declared wet and the start took place behind the safety car with a rolling start. Martí and Vidales gradually moved up several places. Martí’s race came to an early end when Zak O’Sullivan spun in front of Martí and the Spaniard crashed into him, damaging his car front suspension. From then onwards, Vidales remained the single Campos Racing driver and crossed the finish line in 12th place, almost into the points-paying positions.
The FIA Formula 3 will head to Hungaroring, the “Monaco without the walls” for Round 6 on 30-31 July.
Adrián Campos (Campos Racing Team Principal): “Our team has plenty of potential but not always we are able to convert it into results. Once again, we had very good pace to put our cars in the top-ten but our main goal is to take steps forward in qualifying. We experienced some bad luck with red flag at the end because, a few seconds later, and David would be on the front row and our weekend would have been completely different. Anyway, the red flag came out for everybody and we have to accept it. We will keep working as hard as always to finally achieve the results we deserve. I would like to wish Hunter a speedy recovery but it will be difficult to see him racing at the Hungaroring.”
