Rafael Câmara secured the most privileged starting position for the fourth time in the current Formula 2 season. The Brazilian driver achieved this feat during the qualifying session held on Friday, July 17, 2026, at the Spa-Francorchamps stage, in Belgium. With a time of 1:56.306, he surpassed Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and Alex Dunne. Compatriot Enzo Fittipaldi, also from Invicta, finished qualifying in 15th place.
F2 race broadcasts are scheduled for this weekend. The sprint race will take place on Saturday, starting at 9:15 am, while the main race will be broadcast from 5 am on Sunday, both Brasília times. The sportv3 channel will be responsible for showing the two disputes live.
The young driver had already achieved pole position for the main races in other important stages, such as Monaco, Barcelona and Great Britain, where he even secured victory in the race held in Spain. This was, to date, the Recife native’s only triumph in the championship, which marks his participation as a debutant in the category.
Due to the inverted grid regulations for the sprint race, Rafael Câmara will start Saturday’s race in tenth position, while Noel Leon will start from pole. The 21-year-old Brazilian competitor, who is the current Formula 3 champion, is currently in third place in the Formula 2 championship, accumulating 96 points.
- Positions and times: see the qualifying results at Spa-Francorchamps
- Rafael Câmara – 1m56s306 – +0s000
- Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak – 1m56s345 – +0s039
- Alex Dunne – 1m56s492 – +0s186
- Nikola Tsolov – 1m56s699 – +0s393
- James Bennett – 1m56s759 – +0s453
- Dino Beganovic – 1m56s807 – +0s501
- Joshua Dürksen – 1m56s822 – +0s516
- Roman Bilinski – 1m56s839 – +0s533
- Martinius Stenshorne – 1m56s872 – +0s566
- Noel León – 1m56s884 – +0s578
- Sebastian Montoya – 1m56s918 – +0s612
- Nicola Varrone – 1m57.018 – +0s712
- Kush Maini – 1m57s085 – +0s779
- Oliver Goethe – 1m57s094 – +0s788
- Enzo Fittipaldi – 1m57s270 – +0s964
- Rafael Villagómez – 1m57s336 – +1s030
- Gabriele Minì – 1m57s395 – +1s089
- Colton Herta – 1m57s509 – +1s203
- Laurens van Hoepen – 1m57s841 – +1s535
- Callum Shields – 1m58.073 – +1s767
- Mari Boya – 1m58s528 – +2s222
- Ritomo Miyata – 1m59s295 – +2s98
The qualifying session had a start interrupted by a red flag, caused by Noel Leon, who stopped the car on the track after a spin on the challenging Eau Rouge curve. Time only started running again after a four-minute break. Before the stoppage, only Stenshorne, Dunne and Enzo Fittipaldi had scored laps. With the resumption of activity, Rafael Câmara recorded the first reference time, being later surpassed by Tsolov and, later, by Dunne.
Rafael Câmara chose to remain on the track while many of his competitors returned to the pits. After briefly falling to third place, the driver from Pernambuco managed to improve his performance, reaching second place, with a time 0s2 slower than Dunne. At that time, his compatriot Enzo Fittipaldi was in 16th position.
The competitors returned to the track with ten minutes remaining until the end of the session. However, activity was once again halted by a second red flag, less than four minutes from the end, when Laurens van Hoepen parked his car on the main straight due to a mechanical problem, interrupting qualifying for approximately eight minutes.
After a brief period to reheat the tires, the drivers only had one chance to complete a quick lap, with the timer already indicating the end of the session. Nikola Tsolov came to record provisional pole, but Rafael Câmara performed a better lap than the Bulgarian driver, securing first position. Soon after, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and Alex Dunne overtook Tsolov, removing him from the top 3. Enzo Fittipaldi, in turn, secured 15th place on the starting grid.
