Canamasas delivers stellar recovery from last to 6th

An eventful race 2 in Baku forced Canamasas to pit for front wing change following an incident at the restart. From the back of the field, the Barcelona-born driver still managed to put in a brilliant recovery drive to take sixth.

Sergio Canamasas was in a class of his own at the Baku City Circuit in Sunday´s sprint race of the GP2 Series. The driver of Carlin had the deck stacked against him but the only Spanish driver in the series displayed tenacity like no other to finish sixth.

Following his early retirement in feature race, Canamasas would line up at the back of the grid. But when the lights went out, Spain´s racer made a perfect start and from 19th moved up to 10th on lap one. Unfortunately, on lap 7 Jordan King and Jimmy Eriksson collided as the Briton attempted an overtake on the Swedish driver. Canamasas, all over their tail, dropped four places waiting for rejoin safely. After this first caution period, the safety car was deployed once again when another car hit the wall. But this second restart was worse as the race leader eased off causing several incidents in the pack. Canamasas got involved and it damaged his front wing, which forced him to make a pit stop. Fortunately, it brought out the safety car but shuffled Canamasas to the back of the field. After the third restart, Canamasas set a stunning pace to move through the field. Finally, he took the checkered flag 6th.

“It was an exciting race! I made a good start and moved up to tenth. But then I lost four places when King and Eriksson crashed into each other. After that, I gained several places again and climbed into the top-ten but the incident at the restart damaged my front wing”, Canamasas underlined, stressing that “I was forced to pit. Again at the tail of the field, 16th, I had a strong pace. I overtook several cars. But unfortunately it was Sunday´s sprint race and I would rather a longer one! With a few laps more, I really think I could have shot for podium. My early retirement in race one was a setback and my pit stop today did not help either. But my weekend ended on a positive note passing several cars in last laps. For sure this result will help us for future events.”