Sergio Canamasas misses out on the points on Sunday

The Barcelona-born driver, who fought his way to fifth in GP2´s feature race yesterday, struggled with high tire wear in his Carlin Dallara GP2/11 at the end of the race. Finally, Canamasas came 9th in sprint race, which was finished under safety car.

Sergio Canamasas was looking set for another top-five finish at his home event at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya but finally the local hero couldn´t put in an equally brilliant performance. With his Carlin-entered Dallara GP2/11, Canamasas made a strong recovery on Saturday and, starting 15th on the grid, he quickly moved through the field to finish fifth. Fourth on the reverse grid today, Canamasas fended off rivals despite being hampered by starting on the dirty side.

On lap fourth, in spite of his car wasn´t as competitive as yesterday, another strong defensive drive came from Canamasas, keeping Pierre Gasly – who finished second on the podium at the end- at bay. After several attempts, Gasly took fourth from Canamasas. Tire wear got worse and Artem Markelov, Nicholas Latifi and Oliver Rowland also overtook Canamasas, who was struggling for a bit of rear grip especially in the second sector but his times still was competitive. Finally, Japan´s Nobuharu Matsushita passed Sergio for 8th a few seconds before the safety car was deployed. At the end, the sprint race was finished under safety car and it hampered his chances to fight for final points position.

“For sure, I expected something else considering my fourth place on the starting grid. Today our car wasn´t as well balanced as yesterday, struggling in the second sector and, a bit, in the third. We were strong in the first sector, but my times there weren´t good enough to cut in on drivers ahead. I had excessive rear end traction issues. At the end, my tires went off”, Canamasas underlined. Anyway, the only Spanish drivers in the series highlighted “my fifth place was great in race one. Without any doubts, it was one of my best performances in the series. Besides, I made some good overtaking moves. And it´s something I´m proud of.”