The Spanish driver saw his chances of fighting for points in Saturday's Sprint race cut short due to mechanical issues.
In the long race on Sunday, a poor start and a wrong strategy left him at the back of the pack.
"Honestly, it’s been a frustrating weekend with many setbacks. We’ve had a lot of pace, and in particular, today we were among the fastest, but we qualified 12th in the qualifying session and didn’t get to race on Saturday."
Pepe Martí faced a challenging weekend at the Losail International Circuit, the venue for the penultimate round of the FIA Formula 2 season, as part of the F1 Qatar Grand Prix. Despite the setbacks, the Red Bull Junior Team driver showed his commitment to his team, Campos Racing, and concluded another key learning weekend in his first year in the category.
Saturday's Sprint race was marked by a fuel pump issue, which prevented Martí from starting the race, leaving the young driver without any chance to fight for points.
"Honestly, it’s been a frustrating weekend with many setbacks. We’ve had a lot of pace, and in particular, today we were among the fastest, but we qualified 12th in qualifying and couldn’t participate in the Saturday race. We had an issue with the car that prevented us from going out on track, and that made things much more complicated," he commented.
In the long race on Sunday, Martí started on hard tyres, which hindered his performance off the line. However, as the race went on, he found a steady rhythm and focused on completing all the laps to gain mileage and accumulate experience.
"Today, Sunday, a bad start and a wrong strategy left us at the back of the group (16th), with no chance to recover positions. In addition, a costly mistake on my part completely reduced our expectations."
With this round, the season is drawing to a close. Next week, Formula 2 heads to Abu Dhabi for the final race of the year, where Martí will aim to finish the season with a strong result.
"I'm looking forward to getting to Abu Dhabi, maintaining this pace, and with a bit less bad luck, achieving good results, as after a lot of hard work, the pace is there, and we need to make the most of it," concluded Martí.
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