Brazilian driver Rafael Câmara secured a spot on the podium in the main race of the opening round of the Formula 2, held on the evening of the last Saturday (7) at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, Australia. The driver, who made his debut in the category with Invicta Racing, started from sixth position and crossed the finish line in second place after the 33 laps of the race.
Right from the start, Câmara advanced two positions, gaining two more places after an incident in front of him. After the round of pit stops, the Brazilian again made passes to secure second place, just over a second behind the winner. At the end of the race, the member of the Ferrari Driver Academy celebrated the result, which came after a Sprint where he was in a podium position but finished 11th.
“It was a very positive start to the championship, especially after yesterday. I was very close to getting on the podium and I think, having finished in second place today, I’m quite happy. It was a clean race and I’m happy to finish the weekend this way,” said Rafael Câmara, shortly after the race in Australia.
The podium in the main F2 race means Câmara is repeating what he did last season in Australia, when he won the dispute that offers more points in Formula 3, starting the campaign that earned him the title in the category. The Brazilian highlighted the performance he had in Melbourne and recalled the chaotic qualifying session on Thursday, saying the strategy was to have a clean race to achieve a positive result.
“Melbourne was a very good race last year and I think it went well this year too. Qualifying almost ruined everything, because after the red flag everything got very confusing. Everyone was going very slowly and trying to open the lap, because we knew that by closing the lap, we would definitely improve a lot. I think that, in the end, we managed to stay among the top 10, which was good enough to fight for points,” explained the driver.
“Yesterday was also looking very good. The car’s pace was good in the race and we knew that today the goal was just to keep everything clean and that would be a good result,” added Câmara, who leaves Australia with 18 points in the championship and the vice-leadership in the classification table after the first of 14 stages.
Formula 2 has the second round of the 2026 season scheduled for April 10, 11, and 12 at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain.
