On the return to the track of the HRacing Cup series, Bia Martins recovered from adversities at Interlagos and was close to a top-5 in the rookie class.
The newly-launched HRacing Cup held its second round between June 15th - 18th and, just like for its debut, the stage was the world famous Interlagos Circuit. And in the spite of challenges that arose in the races, the only woman on the grid - Bia Martin - had the opportunity to demonstrate her ability to overcome difficulties.
The first track activities held between Thursday and Friday were mainly marked by rainy conditions and wet asphalt at the home of the Brazilian GP. On track conditions that were not ideal during most of the practice sessions, Martins managed to improve lap times and developed more confidence behind the wheel of her Hyundai HB20 #555 from Hipper Freios / Pilot Up Team.
Bia Martins evaluated positively the chance she had to continue with her adaptation work to the car - reminding that this is her first participation in a complete season of touring cars: “On the debut I had to deal with the track in the same condition, alternating between dry and wet", she explained. "The forecast is for more rain over the weekend, so today in practice we were able to really enjoy it as we will probably face a wet track in one of the races.”
Unfortunately, in Race 1, held on Saturday, Martins was not very lucky and saw her participation come to an end on the first lap. After starting in 21th place overall, she ended up involved in an incident in the midfield and was forced to retire for the first time of the season, after the front of her HB20 #555 was damaged.
As a result of the incident that occurred the day before, Bia Martins had the mission in race 2 to do a recovery job, starting at the back of a grid with 31 cars - in P29. In the first 15 minutes, she had already climbed the order, gaining 10 positions until the safety car was deployed: the #01 car had stopped on track and had to be removed by the marshals.
At the restart, Martins was already in 16th place and continued to do a good job in gaining as many positions as possible. This time luck was a bit more on her side when a little further ahead there was contact between cars that fought for position. Debris was left on track, but her car was unscathed. In her best position at the weekend, Bia Martins reached 14th place, but ended up being overtaken in the last laps and finished race 2 in 15th overall - P6 in the Rookies classification.
“I am taking every opportunity. Without a doubt, accelerating on the Interlagos track has brought huge growth to my career."
“For very little I didn't reach the podium", she commented. "I was in fifth position in race 2 and at the end I dropped to 6th. But, once again, it was a huge learning for me at Interlagos. It was a weekend of evolution, without a doubt.” - Bia Martins continued, after a positive weekend and having recovered from the damage of the previous race.
The HRacing Cup will return to action on July 30th, - also at Interlagos, where Bia Martins will once again have the chance to continue progressing in her learning and evolution work in the series.