The Barcelona-born driver, who qualified 16th on the grid, ran in sixth place throughout the majority of the race and finally brought 12th home. Canamasas and Carlin will work towards a better set-up and they are still eying a points finish tomorrow.
Sergio Canamasas had done particularly well to put another good recovery drive in during GP2´s penultimate race of 2016 season held at Yas Marina Circuit. With his Carlin Dallara GP2/11 Canamasas set 16th-fastest time in qualifying as traffic prevented him from posting a quicker lap. Spain´s driver still manage to be the fastest Trevor Carlin´s team in qualifying. In race one, Canamasas chose the harder compound for the first stint and it proved to be a right choice as he moved up to sixth. With four laps to go, Canamasas pitted and switched to soft tire. His race pace was excellent in the closing stages of the race and finally he took the checkered flag in 12th place.
“We thought we could have done better because when they told me I was running 6th, I concentrated and rode full attack. In my opinion, our pit strategy was absolutely the right decision. But then, we would have needed a few different race facts to succeed”, Canamasas explained. He underlined that “it is mandatory to improve our car for tomorrow because we are slightly far away from the fast pace. Our car struggled with temperature despite heat wasn´t that high today. Tomorrow it should get worse as Sunday´s sprint race takes place at noon. We have to make improvements but points are within reach”.