Sergio Canamasas is competing in the GP2 Series with the Trident Racing team in 2014, and took his maiden series podium finish in the Sprint race at Monaco at the end of May.
After Zimbabwean driver Axcil Jefferies took the drive for the opening round of the season in Bahrain, Canamasas stepped into the Trident drive for his home event in Spain. Having raced for the EQ8 Caterham Racing team in 2013, he felt it easy to get back into the swing of things despite not having any chance to test before the races in Barcelona, especially once the he and the team got to know each other.
“It was a good start, apart from Barcelona where my team and I were [getting to] know each other,” said Canamasas to The Checkered Flag. “At Monaco starting from P12 and finishing P5 in the first race, and in the second race to finish on the podium was a good start, [but] after that we [have] had some ups and downs due to some bad luck, mainly in the qualifying sessions.
“It was easy to adapt to this cart that I already know, and the adaptation with the team was also good. We were expecting of course after the result of Monaco to experience some good results, but it seems there’s “someone” trying to not have success.”
Looking back over that weekend in Monaco, the Spaniard is proud to have achieved his maiden series podium around the streets of the Principality, and it will be a result that will stick in his memory for a long time to come.
“It was a result which I [will] always remember in the future,” insisted Canamasas. “It was the first podium in the GP2 and on that circuit, which is one of my favourites, with all the history that it has.”
The subsequent races at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, Silverstone in Great Britain and Hockenheim in Germany did not go to plan for various reasons, and the twenty-six year-old failed to add to his Monaco points tally.
“[Those races were] something between disaster and good learning sessions,” reflected Canamasas. “In Austria we were competitive but in some areas we were lacking a bit of competitively, in Great Britain, we were competitive but we had bad luck in the qualifying, and as well on race 2, hit by another car. Germany was the same in terms of bad luck.”
The last weekend before the mid-season break was in Hungary. At the start, Canamasas dropped to the back when a fire extinguisher went off in his cockpit, but after that he fought back spectacularly, and was on course for some points when he collided with the Venezuela GP Lazarus machine of Frenchman Nathanael Berthon, an incident that the Spaniard believes the Frenchman was responsible for.
It was a heavy crash into the barriers between turns one and two, but thankfully, despite receiving some trackside medical assistance, Canamasas was fine.
“The other driver was not fair and open the steering lock, so we made contact,” said Canamasas. “After starting P16, and going backwards to last because I had a problem with the fire extinguisher, [I was having] such a good race. [After the problem] there were 21 cars in front [of me and] I was running P7. This was of course disappointing [to retire], but that’s how races are and if you don’t accept that, it is better to go home.
“I’m fine, it was a big crash, that fortunately for me in this moment I feel okay. Nowadays the safety is very high and we take advantage from that, but nevertheless I was a bit dizzy after that crash.”
