The Spanish driver achieved a commendable fourth place in Saturday's Sprint race, showcasing his competitive ability.
In the main race, he displayed his skill at the start, but a setback ruined his chances, and he was unable to score any points.
“In the final part of Sunday’s race, we had a pretty decent pace, so we’ve taken some positives looking ahead to Baku in two weeks, and we’ll try to do a good job there.”
The Autodromo Nazionale di Monza hosted the eleventh round of the Formula 2 season, where Pepe Martí once again showcased his talent in Saturday’s Sprint race, but a Sunday incident prevented him from scoring points in the main race.
Since the start of the summer break, the young Spanish driver and his team, Campos Racing, had been working tirelessly to optimise the performance of the car. Their efforts paid off at the legendary Monza circuit, where Pepe managed to secure a spot in the top ten during the qualifying session. For the second time this season (the first being in Melbourne), he earned seventh place on the grid for the feature race. Starting third in the Sprint race, Martí delivered one of his best performances, finishing fourth after a solid and consistent race, which he even led at one point.
"It’s been both a positive and negative weekend. Free practice went quite well, and we had a good setup for qualifying. In the qualy, we also got a good result, finishing in seventh place, which was a strong starting point for the weekend. In the first race, starting from third, we had the chance to take the lead early on, but unfortunately, we couldn’t capitalise on that opportunity as we lacked pace. From first, we dropped to fourth, but after a tough battle to defend the position, we managed to score five points," Martí explained.
On Sunday, starting from seventh on the grid, Martí made a spectacular start, with a chance to join the fight for the podium. However, he was involved in an unfortunate incident at the first corner, where, due to heavy braking, he collided with another driver. As a result, he received a 10-second penalty during his pit stop for a tyre change. Despite the penalty, Martí fought hard throughout the race, and the appearance of the safety car helped him lose less time, allowing him to rejoin the pack and finish in 12th place.
Describing the incident, Martí said, “We had a fantastic start, and as I approached the first chicane alongside another driver for third place, I braked harder than I should have and ended up hitting the other driver. It was impossible to avoid the contact; once I stopped braking, there was nothing I could do. From that point on, it was a tough race with the 10-second penalty. The safety car helped us get back into the group. After the safety car, I was in 15th place, and we managed to finish 12th, with a fairly decent race pace towards the end.”
Looking ahead to the next race in Baku, the Red Bull Junior Team driver and his Campos Racing team will continue working hard to build on the lessons learned at Monza and turn the strong pace they showed into solid results in the upcoming rounds. “We’ve taken some positives heading into Baku in two weeks, and we’ll aim to do a good job there.”
The Azerbaijan round will take place next weekend, from 13th to 15th September.
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