Brazilian Rafael Câmara secured a place on the podium in the main race of the Formula 2 opening round, held last Saturday night (7) at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, Australia. The driver, who debuted in the category for Invicta Racing, started from sixth position and crossed the finish line in second place at the end of the 33 laps of the race.
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Right at the start, Câmara moved up two positions, gaining two more spots after an incident in front of him. After the round of pit stops, the Brazilian made overtakes again to secure second place, just over a second behind the winner. At the end of the race, the Ferrari Driver Academy member 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 am quite happy. It was a clean race and I am happy to finish the weekend this way,” said Rafael Câmara, right after the race in Australia.
The podium in the F2 main race sees Câmara repeat what he did last season in Australia, when he won the race that offers the most points in Formula 3, starting the campaign that earned him his title in the category. The Brazilian highlighted his performance in Melbourne and recalled the chaotic qualifying on Thursday, noting that the strategy was to have a clean race to achieve a positive result.
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“Melbourne was a very good race last year and I think everything went well this year too. Qualifying almost ruined everything because after the red flag it all became very confusing. Everyone was going very slowly and trying to open a lap, because we knew that by completing the lap, we would definitely improve a lot. I think, in the end, we managed to stay in the top 10, which was good enough to fight for points,” the driver explained.
“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 this would be a good result,” added Câmara, who leaves Australia with 18 points in the championship and second place in the standings after the first of 14 rounds.
F2 has the second round of the 2026 season scheduled for April 10, 11, and 12 at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain.
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