Pedro Clerto claimed victory during a chaotic Feature Race 1 at the 2026 F3 Madrid Round at the Spanish GP, view the full race report here.
The final round of the 2026 F3 season kicked off with a clean Sprint Race, which saw Théophile Naël dominate ahead of PREMA Racing’s James Wharton and Alex Powell. The race highlighted how difficult it is to overtake on the new Madring circuit, with championship leader Freddie Slater only managing P18, while rival Ugo Ugochukwu closed the gap with a P8 finish. The result left just 12 points between the two heading into the penultimate race of 2026.
As focus turned to Feature Race 1, Taito Kato lined up on his maiden F3 pole, starting alongside Pedro Clero in P2 and Tuukka Taponen in P3. Ugochuwku began from P4, while Enzo Deligny completed the top five.
2026 F3 Madrid Feature Race 1 begins with massive crash
As the five lights went out, Rodin Motorsport’s Clerot made the stronger start, taking the lead into Turn 1. Drama struck early with a six-car collision at Turns 6 and 7 that initially triggered a Safety Car before the session was red-flagged. Van Amersfoort Racing’s Enzo Deligny and Bruno Del Pino began the pile-up after making contact on the run to Turn 7 and leaving several cars with nowhere to go.
Unable to avoid the incident, Maciej Gładysz went airborne against the barriers. José Garfias, Woohyun Shin, and Fernando Barrichello joined Gładysz, Deligny, and Del Pino on the DNF list, while Noah Strømsted and Finn McLaughlin recovered to the pit lane. Despite being in the middle of the chaos, Slater escaped untouched.
Race restart
After the marshals cleared the track, Race Control announced that the race would resume with a rolling start at 18:35 local time. During the interruption, recent Monza Feature Race winner Nicola Lacorte received a 5-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
Clerot took the field back to racing speed at the restart, immediately building a gap to Kato and Taponen. Kato soon dropped out of DRS range, with Clerot storming away with a 1.2s lead. Meanwhile, by Lap 5, title contender Ugochukwu remained P4 while Slater ran P15. Eager to enter Sunday’s Feature Race 2 with a points advantage, Ugochukwu quickly closed in on Taponen, forcing the Finn to defend into Turn 5.
As the grid still sat tight, a DRS train formed from Ugochukwu in P4 to Brando Badoer in P18. Lap 7, however, saw Slater miss the first chicane, placing him under pressure from Kanato Le in P16.
Slater hits the barriers
Despite the opening lap chaos, drivers continued to push to the limits, with Wharton jumping up to P10 after De Palo bounced across the Turn 6 kerbs and lost another place to David. Lap 10 saw more disaster unfold, with championship leader Slater losing control of his car and finding the wall at Turn 19, triggering the second Safety Car of Feature Race 1. Slater marked the seventh retirement of the race.
Notably, moments before the incident, Nakamura attempted to fight Ugochuwku for position, with the Campos Racing driver bouncing across the kerbs and also nearly finding the wall. With Ugochuwku still in P4 and Slater out of the race, the pair will enter Feature Race 2 tied on points.
Eighth laps to go
The race resumed on Lap 11 with Clerot making another strong start. Kato briefly remained within striking distance, before slipping out of DRS range a few laps later. Unable to find pace, Ugochuwku also fell back, running 1.3s behind Taponen, while Nakamura remained within a second of the American racing driver.
With three laps remaining, Clerot comfortably led the field with a slowly growing 1.1s lead. Kato remained in P2, while Taponen managed to set the fastest lap on Lap 18, still running in P3. Further down the grid, Naël and Rivera closely battled for third place in the championship, with the two now separated by 5 points.
Through it all, Pedro Clerot crossed the chequered flag first, claiming his maiden F3 win, with Taito Kato and Tuukka Taponen completing the Feature Race 1 podium. With Ugochukwu, Rivera, and Naël all finishing in the top ten, Campos Racing leaves Feature Race 1 with a back-to-back Teams’ title, while the Drivers’ championship continues into Feature Race 2 with Ugochukwu and Slater tied on points.
2026 F3 Spanish GP Feature Race 1 results
