Luck was not on the Spanish driver's side at the Australian Grand Prix, where he was unable to take advantage of the speed of his car to score more points due to several setbacks.
Martí is now seventh in the overall championship standings, and will continue working to get stronger at Imola, and to be able to fight in the front positions.
"A race to forget, with mistakes to learn from. Now it's time to go home, keep working hard, and get stronger for the next race. I want to thank the team and the Red Bull Junior Team. We have a good car and we are looking forward to Imola with the desire to be at the front again".
Pepe Marti's start in Formula 2 has been a clear evolution. The Red Bull Junior Team driver started the season on the podium, with a second and third position in the first race in Bahrain. Without a break came Jeddah, where he saved the furniture and scored points. This weekend the third round took place in Melbourne, Australia, from where Martí has learned a lot.
It has been a day marked by setbacks and obstacles to add to his baggage and continue working in his rookie year in the intermediate category. Martí achieved on Friday a great improvement in qualifying, a task he had pending, obtaining his best result in qualifying so far; seventh place.
On Saturday in the Sprint race, whose grid is reversed for the first 10 positions, Pepe started from fourth place. After a great start in which he would have had options to take the lead, another driver rammed him and he ended up off the track, leaving him with no options to continue. The Catalan rider, who had the pace and speed to win the race, was unlucky.
This Sunday, with no experience in the Albert Park track with the Formula 2 car after not having driven the previous day, the long race was a challenge.
From the seventh position on the grid, Marti started well again until a small mistake at turn 10 slowed down his progress.Then, the pit stop was not the desired one, and added to an untimely safety car, he could not finish higher than the thirteenth position.
A weekend of obstacles, which Pepe Marti adds to his experience to continue learning and get stronger for the next race. After a frenetic start of three races practically in a row, Formula 2 comes to a seven-week break and will return in Imola next May 17-19.
"Difficult weekend.After our best qualifying result on Friday when we got seventh position, everything else didn't go our way. Yesterday, Saturday, I made a great start, we had a chance to be in the first position, but a big contact with two drivers put us out of the race.
Today, Sunday, I also made a very good start, starting from seventh place.I was in fifth place right away. However, in turn 10 I made a mistake that cost me dearly.It was the first time I was very close to the rider in front of me.He made a small mistake and went a bit long, and I was behind him, on the dirty part of the track.Probably due to the inexperience of not having run the Sprint on Saturday, which has meant having very little experience on this circuit with a Formula 2. I did not know how to anticipate sufficiently the change of balance of the car, and the result was to lose two positions.A big mistake on my part, but then the bad luck continued. When the opportunity to change tires came up, we made the stop as usual, but it wasn't very good. In addition, the safety car came out, and at that moment it was not good for us. We were passed by 5 or 6 drivers, and from then on it was a different kind of race, quite uphill.
I have been fighting behind with a large group and several mishaps and small incidents with other cars. A race to forget, with mistakes to learn from. Now it's time to go back home, keep working hard, and get stronger for the next race. The car is competitive, as we have seen, given that my teammate has been the fastest on the track every time he has had the opportunity.So it's a pity I couldn't take advantage of the car having the same speed.I want to thank the team and the Red Bull Junior Team.We have a good car and we are looking forward to Imola with the desire to be at the front again".