Formula Regional: Less than brilliant Zandvoort for Camara and Weug

Crashes in Race 2 meant there wasn’t much to smile about for the Ferrari Driver Academy duo in the Netherlands. On to Hockenheim now for the final round.

The ninth and penultimate round of the European Formula Regional championship was affected by poor weather, which is often the case in Zandvoort towards the end of the summer. Rafael Camara finished the first race, picking up points for seventh place, having started from the fourth row of the grid. It was raining for the start of Race 2 and the Brazilian had to retire after a few laps, following a collision with another car while fighting for fifth place.

“This weekend was a bit different to previous ones as the weather made life very complicated,” explained Camara. “Basically, I think we were always reasonably competitive but at the start of Q1 the track dried quickly and it was the first time running in these conditions. I pushed hard but I made a small mistake so I could not get near the front and that affected my race as it’s very difficult to overtake at Zandvoort.

In qualifying for Race 2, the best time turned out to be the warm up lap because after that it was chaos and it wasn’t possible to do a flying lap. We still got a place on the third row and after the opening laps, I felt I had the pace to aim for the podium. Unfortunately, I made a mistake that meant I had to retire and so now I’m just focusing on Hockenheim, as I want to have a strong finish to the season.” Camara is currently fifth in the standings on 146 points.

Maya. Maya Weug was unable to score points. In Race 1 she moved up from 23rd to 17th place, running a good race “My race pace was better than in qualifying,” she said. “But at Zandvoort, it’s vital to have a good grid position because it’s really difficult to move up the order.” Unfortunately, Sunday was a day to forget. In a rain affected qualifying, Maya did not set a time after going off the track.

In the race, she began to move up through the field, then during a Safety Car period, there was a dangerous situation when Emerson Fittipaldi spun and was hit by Maya who was right behind. It was a big impact but fortunately neither driver was injured. “That was a tough day,” admitted Maya. “The most important thing is no one is hurt, so now we can think about Hockenheim.”