Jul 6

Invicta Racing secures solid points haul from challenging Silverstone weekend

All images ©: Dutch Photo Agency

Invicta Racing showed good promise on home soil at Silverstone, with Rafael Câmara securing his third FIA Formula 2 pole position before finishing fifth in the Feature Race, while Joshua Dürksen claimed consecutive points finishes across the weekend

Invicta Racing's qualifying results banner

With its high-speed configuration and narrow margins, Silverstone presented one of the most demanding Qualifying sessions of the 2026 FIA Formula 2 season to date, as the field battled to extract the maximum performance over a single lap.

Rafael Câmara and Joshua Dürksen both took to the circuit early in the 30-minute session, but each had their opening lap times deleted for separate track limits infringements, leaving the Invicta Racing duo with work to do.

As the session entered its middle phase, Joshua continued to build momentum with a banker lap, while Rafael immediately demonstrated his potential by vaulting up to third place, just over two tenths adrift of provisional pole position.

With track conditions improving, lap times continued to tumble throughout the closing stages and Joshua immediately showcased strong pace by breaking into the top 10 with his final run.

In the closing stages, Rafael delivered when it mattered most to top the timesheets by more than two tenths of a second.

None of his rivals were able to respond, giving Rafael his third FIA Formula 2 pole position of the season and two championship points, while Joshua secured seventh.

RESULTS

Rafael Câmara: P1 (1:39.690)
Joshua Dürksen: P7 (1:40.309)

With the top 10 positions from Qualifying reversed, Joshua lined up in fourth for Saturday’s Sprint Race while Rafael started from 10th.

After initially losing a position to Ritomo Miyata in the opening sequence of corners, Joshua responded immediately to reclaim fourth place with a bold overtake around the outside of Stowe later in the lap.

Rafael, meanwhile, slipped to 14th in the initial exchanges after a slow getaway was compounded by being run wide at Brooklands.

Before the field could settle into a rhythm, the Safety Car was deployed at the start of Lap 2 following contact between John Bennett and Sebastián Montoya on the main straight.

With the field bunched up, racing resumed at the end of Lap 6 and Joshua immediately set his sights on the podium by applying sustained pressure on Nikola Tsolov at the restart.

Rafael, meanwhile, began to carve his way back through the midfield by passing Matrinius Stenshorne, Noel León, and Mari Boya in quick succession to stand on the verge of the top 10.

Further ahead, Joshua remained in contention but came under increasing pressure during the closing stages and, after going wheel-to-wheel with Kush Maini and staging a determined defence, ultimately conceded fourth place.

As the race continued to evolve, the Paraguayan struggled for pace and was overtaken by Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak on Lap 16 before Dino Beganovic and Roman Bilinski also found a way through.

Joshua crossed the line in eighth to score one point while Rafael, who continued his recovery by overtaking Miyata, completed the top 10.

RESULTS

Joshua Dürksen: P8 (1 point)
Rafael Câmara: P10 (0 points)

Lining up in pole position, Rafael had a slow start from the front row in the Feature Race, with Maini, Tsolov, and Alex Dunne overtaking the Brazilian off the line.

Facing sustained pressure from behind, Rafael ran wheel-to-wheel with Bilinski through the opening sequence of corners and cemented fourth under braking into Farm, before sweeping around the outside of Dunne to take third.

Having overtaken the Irishman off track, Rafael handed third back to Dunne on Lap 2 while Joshua, who fell to eighth on the opening lap, reclaimed his starting position with an impressive move around the outside of Bilinski at Luffield.

As the opening stint unfolded, Rafael started to struggle on the Soft tyres and became one of the first front-runners to pit by fitting the Hard compound on Lap 7, emerging in a net fourth.

Joshua, who was running on the alternate strategy, inherited second place during the pit window and extended his opening stint before fitting the Softs for the final phase of the race to rejoin in 13th.

Further ahead, Rafael continued to pressure Dunne for third but was overtaken by Rafael Villagómez on Lap 26 of 29 and fell to fifth.

Despite continuing to chase the battle ahead, Rafael took fifth at the chequered flag, just 1.2 seconds adrift of the podium. Joshua, meanwhile, fought from 13th to finish ninth at the line, adding two points to his 2026 total.

RESULTS

Rafael Câmara: P5 (10 points)
Joshua Dürksen: P9 (2 points)

RAFAEL CÂMARA

"Overall, a tough one this weekend. It felt good to take pole position on Friday, and being able to start at the front gave us a good opportunity to score well in the Feature Race. Unfortunately, the slow start put us on the back foot and from there, with the tyre degradation on the Softs, it was difficult to move forward. I think the pace on the Hard compound was better but unfortunately we just ran out of laps to overtake [Alex] Dunne and challenge [Kush] Maini. It’s slightly frustrating to come away with fifth after the promise we showed, but it’s good to score points and we’ll come back stronger in Belgium.”

JOSHUA DÜRKSEN

“I think we took a step forward this weekend, and while we were able to score points in both the Sprint and the Feature, I think it’s clear that we have the pace to fight for much more. It’s been a challenging run recently, but I’m confident that it’s only a matter of time before we get a good result. We’ll come back stronger at Spa.”

JAMES ROBINSON, TEAM PRINCIPAL

“A bittersweet home event for the team here at Silverstone. On one hand, it was good to see Rafa get his third pole position of the season, but on the other, there is a sense that we did ultimately under-achieve across the weekend. Without the slow start to the Feature Race, I think a podium could have been on the cards and although he was in the battle with Dunne at the end, there was little more that Rafa could have done to keep Villagómez behind. Joshua, on the other hand, took a good step forward this weekend and, after taking consecutive points finishes, is determined to get back on the podium. At this stage of the season, consistently scoring points is the most important thing we can do as a team, but we know that we’re capable of far more. We’ll regroup for Spa and hopefully live up to our true potential.”