Rival prevents Canamasas from taking points at Spa

Spain´s driver was hit from behind by Rowland as he turned through the final chicane while running 9th. Canamasas lost three places and failed to score a point in Saturday´s GP2 Series feature race in Belgium. Canamasas performed pretty well and his pace proved to be competitive.

Sergio Canamasas almost made it into the points at Spa-Francorchamps on Saturday. Canamasas started no higher than 16th due to engine issues in qualifying but as soon as the lights went out, he managed to pass two cars heading into La Source. Canamasas was hit by another rival and shortly after his teammate Marvin Kirchhöffer caused another collision resulting in aerodynamic damage for the Barcelona-born driver. Despite he dropped to 19th, he managed to regain three places on his soft tires before pitting for his mandatory pit stop on lap six.

Canamasas proved to have a competitive race pace on his set of hard tires and moved up to 9th with five laps to go. Behind Oliver Rowland and Sergey Sirotkin on fresh soft tires struggled to find space to pass him. Finally, when Canamasas was turning through the final chicane, Rowland tried a questionable and aggressive maneuver causing a collision. Canamasas, who nearly spun out, dropped to 12th as a result.

“I tried my best to keep them behind me and, despite losing points exiting the final chicane isn´t something easy to deal with, I´m happy with my performance. Rowland was too aggressive once again, just like in Barcelona. Really I still don´t know how I managed to take the checkered flag as no less than three drivers hit me. It was a difficult race and certainly a wrong-footed one for us. Besides, I lose three or four tenths of a second to other drivers´ laps and my car is the slowest on GP2 Series top speed chart”, Canamasas explained. He underlined that “points a real possibility tomorrow and we will be in the fight”.