Freddie Slater secured victory during a chaotic Feature Race at the 2026 F3 Budapest Round at the Hungarian GP, view the full race report here.
Round 7 of the 2026 F3 season began with an eventful Sprint Race, as Théophile Naël stormed from P6 to victory, finishing ahead of Kanato Le and Ernesto Rivera. The race saw an early Safety Car after Maciej Gładysz, Jin Nakamura, and Gerrard Xie collided at Turn 2, resulting in the retirement of the Pole and Japanese drivers. Meanwhile, a five-second time penalty dropped Ugo Ugochukwu to P17, allowing Freddie Slater to join him at the top of the championship, with both drivers now on 104 points.
As focus turned to Sunday’s Feature Race, Tuukka Taponen lined up on his maiden F3 pole alongside Slater in P2 and Mattia Colnaghi in P3. DAMS Lucas Oil’s Nicola Lacorte started in P4, while Brando Badoer and Ugochukwu completed the top six.
Lights out for the 2026 F3 Budapest Feature Race
Taponen led the field away at lights out, resisting pressure from Slater to keep P1 at Turn 1. Behind, Badoer went down the inside of Colnaghi, taking P3 at Turn 3, while Ugochukwu made his way up to P5. Ugochukwu made minor contact with teammate Naël at Turn 4, but both continued on. They went side-by-side throughout the lap as it got feisty between the Campos duo.
Drama struck out of Turn 12 as Taponen and Slater touched, leaving the Brit without a front wing endplate and the Finn with a puncture.
More chaos unfolded in the midfield, as Gładysz and Xie found the barriers in an accident involving Nakamura at the exit of Turn 13. The incident triggered an early Safety Car, allowing Taponen to pit and change his tyre, as Nakamura returned to the pitlane to retire, joining Gładysz and Xie on the DNF list. Leaving the pitlane, Taponen rejoined in P6 with Slater leading the field.
From a Safety Car to a Virtual Safety Car
As the marshals cleared Gładysz and Xie’s cars quickly, the Safety Car period ended on Lap 6 with Slater leading the field away. Despite immediately building a gap, Slater’s advantage was interrupted as Salim Hanna stopped at Turn 13, bringing out a brief Virtual Safety Car (VSC) as he retired.
The Feature Race at the 2026 F3 Hungarian GP resumed on Lap 8. Ugochukwu wasted no time, taking the fastest lap before going around the outside of Badoer and Colnaghi at Turn 2 to take P2. Sat behind his championship rival, Ugochukwu continued his charge, steadily closing down the gap to race leader Slater.
Despite the pressure from Ugochukwu, a possible penalty was lifted off Slater’s shoulders as Race Control chose to take no further action on the Taponen contact.
Problems emerged for Sprint Race P2 finisher Kanato Le as the ART Grand Prix driver went off the circuit on the exit of Turn 12 with a technical issue. Unable to get going, Le triggered another VSC as he suffered his second retirement of the season.
Slater vs. Ugochukwu
As the race resumed on Lap 14, the gap between Slater and Ugochukwu remained under one second. Their title fight was interrupted once again as Yevan David, Enzo Deligny, and Fernando Barrichello collided at Turn 1.
While David tried to move past Deligny, the VAR driver had nowhere to go and hit Barrichello. The Brazilian had a broken suspension and was out, leading to another Safety Car. The French driver was also done for the day because of damage.
Slater took the field back to racing speed on Lap 18, immediately building a 1.0s gap to Ugochukwu. Fighting for P5, Taponen attempted to overtake Naël at Turn 1, but the Campos Racing driver pushed him off.
Taponen and Naël continued their battle on the following lap, while a Turn 4 mistake for Slater allowed Ugochukwu to close in.
A close final lap decides the championship lead
Entering the final lap, Race Control handed David a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision with Deligny and Barrichello. Meanwhile, Hanna also received a 5-second time penalty for a false start.
At the front, however, Slater crossed the chequered flag first, holding off his championship rival Ugochukwu as Badoer finished P3. The Feature Race win marks Slater’s maiden F3 victory as he now enters the summer break with the championship lead.
