Josep Maria Martí admitted he was disappointed not to finish higher than fifth in Saturday’s Spa Francorchamps Sprint Race, although he does not feel he and Campos Racing had more to give.
The Spaniard had an excellent getaway from fourth but found no space on the inside at Turn 1, causing him to make slight contact with Oliver Goethe.
As a result, Martí took part in the entire race with a damaged front wing, although he says that did not affect his performance massively.
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“We had a pretty good launch, but going into Turn 1, Ollie was quite conservative,” reflected Martí. “So that forced me to stay on the inside, and because of that I could not make up any positions.
“I struggled a bit from there, we weren’t really the fastest out there today, and we just managed to hang on to fifth throughout the whole race until the Safety Car window, when there was the crash with Amaury.”
Amaury Cordeel’s incident came following a collision with Victor Martins on Lap 12 that left him in the gravel at Les Combes.
With his Rodin Motorsport car having to be cleared, the Safety Car was deployed, giving Martí, and the majority of his rivals behind him, the chance to pit for the Soft tyres.
Martí came out as the lead driver on the Option tyre in sixth and while he managed to clear Cian Shields, he could not get past Goethe, as he crossed the line in P5.
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Talking through the final few laps, the 20-year-old said: “We decided to box, we took a chance, it was a good idea because everyone boxed. But after that, it didn’t feel like there was a big pace delta between the Soft and the Medium.
“I was very happy coming out in sixth on the restart, on the used Option, a good tyre. I was a bit disappointed when I was behind him and I was like guys ‘I am not that much faster than him’.
“Once the race stabilised and I had a good chance to pass Ollie, but Alex Dunne went for a move into T1, so that lost me the gap to Ollie, and we never got a chance again.
“It was a bit disappointing because I felt we could have been fourth or third today, but there was not much in it today. It’s part of the game, the Medium lasts very well here, it behaves very well and the Soft doesn’t look to be the best tyre.
“We will see tomorrow, it will be an interesting race because it did last at the same pace. So we could see a bit of a juggle strategy.”
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Martí is set to go from sixth on the grid in the Feature Race and looking ahead to Sunday, he is hopeful that a good start could give a chance to fight for a podium.
“Obviously, I am hoping for a podium,” said the Spanish driver. “Hopefully we can take more than the eight points from where we are starting in sixth.
“If we do a good step forward, we can challenge more than just sixth and I am excited to hopefully have a good start, not get blocked and if we can be around the top four or five in the first half we will have a good shot at the end.”