Øgaard stepped third on the podium of Race 3 securing an important points’ haul in Navarra. Martí saw his weekend jeopardized due to qualifying but scored valuable points in the final race after a brilliant recovery drive

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Campos Racing contested the second appointment of the Formula 4 Spain at Circuito de Navarra and, despite it was a tough round due to a number of reasons, the Spanish-based team and their drivers overcome issues to complete another strong event in the title fight.

After two days devoted to collective private testing, Campos Racing and its four-car Tatuus-Abarth machinery of Sebastian Øgaard, Pepe Martí, Álex García and Oleksandr Partyshev made a good start to the weekend proving competitive pace in free practice sessions held on Saturday morning. Spaniard Martí was 6^th fastest with a personal best of 1m40.401s and Øgaard finished 8^th on the timesheets with a lap time of 1m40.487s.

The first qualifying session in the afternoon was expected to be a first “match ball”. Considering how short and twisty the circuit is, every driver was trying to find clear air for a flying lap. But with 25 cars on track, traffic and yellow flags made it almost impossible. Øgaard qualified in seventh place with his lap of 1m40.229s and Martí set to start four positions adrift with a best lap of 1m40.422s. Mexican García and Ukrainian Partyshev lined up 20^th and 23^rd on the grid. Both Øgaard and Martí managed to put brilliant recovery drives in. The Danish racer showed very good pace and overtook two places to take the checkered flag in fifth place. Similarly, Martí also shone on his own merit and, despite running in traffic for most of the race, finished 12^th and scored the third fastest lap of the race. After a tricky race, García ended up in 19^th place with Partyshev, who made a pit stop for a front wing change, adrift in 23^rd but still putting valuable experience under his belt.

On Sunday, Q2 proved to be another challenge with a red flag dashing plenty of flying laps. Øgaard excelled in such conditions and managed to post a lap of 1m40.445s, which was third fastest. Martí fought for the pole position and in fact the Spaniard had qualified second at the end. But Martí got cancelled his best two laps and was demoted to the back of the grid. García and Partyshev also experienced a tough session and were forced to start at rear.

Øgaard’s performance in race 2 was pretty remarkable and moved past Georg Kelstrup for fifth, in which he crossed the finish line. Unfortunately, he was given a 25-second penalty afterwards and dropped to 22^nd. Martí’s race 2 was impressive overtaking many cars and finally finishing in tenth place. It’s worth mentioning the Spaniard also posted the second fastest lap of the race. García and Partyshev were involved in different race incidents and they couldn’t finish the race.

But the best was still to come in race 3. Despite Øgaard dropped to fourth from third on the starting grid, the Danish driver remained in podium contention all the race long. Martí was another man on a mission moving through the field overtaking three or four drivers per lap. A safety car in the dying moments spiced up further the race but Øgaard kept Dani Maciá at bay to secure his second podium of the season. Martí’s restless effort awarded him with a ninth place finish and scoring two points, which could play a key role at the end of the season. García and Partyshev couldn’t make it to the finish.

The Spanish Formula 4 Championship will head to Portimão for Round 3 on 16-17 July.