The French driver secured his third victory of the current season on Sunday, which allowed him to take the lead in the teams' standings. Spaniard Martí also scored points. Campos Racing extends its lead in the teams' standings
Campos Racing completed another successful race weekend at Silverstone, the venue for the eighth round of the FIA Formula 2 season held during the British Grand Prix of F1. Isack Hadjar clinched his third victory of the current season in a feature race on Sunday, which also placed him as the new leader of the category. Pepe Martí continued scoring points and, after a difficult qualifying session, the Barcelona-born driver climbed up to tenth place.
On Friday, with the not-so-surprising appearance of rain, Martí secured the second-best time in the free practice session with a time of 1m58.693s, while Hadjar was unable to set a competitive time due to a technical problem that kept him in the pits for most of the session. However, the work of Campos Racing's technicians on Hadjar's Dallara car paid off. The Frenchman set an unassailable time of 1m39.368s in qualifying, with Victor Martins nearly three-tenths behind. Martí, on the other hand, couldn't complete a perfect lap and had to settle for 19th place with a time of 1m40.392s.
On Saturday, in the sprint race, Hadjar started tenth in a race that began behind the safety car as rain started falling just before the start. Hadjar made a skillful move around the outside of Paul Aron, while Martí also made a meteoric progression, climbing from 19th to 12th in just four laps. However, on the fourth lap, the red flag was shown due to worsening rain. After some minutes, and with rain tires, the race resumed. Unfortunately, shortly after, with Martí close behind Aron, the Estonian driver had an engine problem during acceleration, causing Martí to crash into the back of his car as he couldn't avoid it due to the small margin. Martí had to retire, and Hadjar went off track shortly after due to the heavy rain.
On Sunday, in the 29-lap feature race, Hadjar started the first part of the race on soft tires, while Martí, further back on the grid, started on the hard compound. When the lights went out, Hadjar lost two positions to Martins and Oliver Bearman, while Martí gained three places, moving up to 16th. After three laps behind the safety car, the race resumed, but another safety car was soon deployed. On lap 7, the green flags were waved again, and Hadjar attacked, passing Bearman to take second place just before making his pit stop. Martins pitted the following lap, emerging just ahead of Hadjar, who tried all means to pass him, leading to a battle between them, with Martins being very aggressive. This allowed Jak Crawford to catch up. Crawford overtook both, while Hadjar passed Martins shortly after halfway. However, a five-second penalty for Crawford meant that Hadjar was the real leader. Martí, running third before his pit stop, eventually pitted on lap 22. From then on, Hadjar stayed close to Crawford to reach the finish line and secure the victory. Martí, on soft tires, climbed to tenth place.
After eight rounds, Hadjar is the new championship leader with 133 points, 16 more than Aron. Martí is twelfth with 38 points. In the teams' standings, Campos Racing extends its lead, accumulating a total of 171 points, thirteen more than MP Motorsport.
The championship now takes a two-week break before heading to Hungaroring on July 20 and 21.
Photos: © Dutch Photo Agency
