Formula 3 heads to the Hungaroring for the penultimate round of the 2025 FIA F3 season. Currently Rafael Câmara and Trident lead both the Drivers’ and Teams’ Championship, with only 2 rounds left of the season. First up, taking to the old-school circuit for the F3 Hungarian GP Practice session, the drivers will have 40 minutes to get up to speed with the technical circuit. With many chicanes and a variety of low, medium and high speed corners, experience will be key. Tyre management will be critical in the Feature Race, but there is the looming threat of rain that could effect the weekend once again.
With two rounds left of the 2025 season, there are mathematically 13 drivers that are in contention for the Drivers’ Championship. However, if Câmara finishes the weekend 40 points clear of the P2 position, the crown will be his before heading into Round 10.
Nikita Johnson also returns to the grid with Hitech TGR for the round, after previously driving for them back at Silverstone.
LIGHTS OUT
The Hungaroring greeted the grid with clear skies and a noticeably dusty surface, quite a contrast to the weather-disrupted rounds in recent weeks.
Hitech TGR’s Nikita Johnson and Gerrard Xie were the first to take to the track, soon followed by all teams except Trident. The Trident drivers waited until the 30-minute mark of the Practice session before making their appearance.
Xie and Johnson were the first to log competitive lap times, clocking in at 1:36.476 and 1:39.679 respectively. While most of the field completed their initial warm-up laps, their times remained in the two-minute range, still building up to full pace.
Lap times start amping up
As drivers began their push laps, the pace quickly intensified, with lap times tumbling into the 1:35s and then the 1:34s. Tim Tramnitz, who currently sits in P3 in the standings, set the highest time with a 1:34.619, followed by Campos Racing’s Mari Boya, two-tenths behind and Nikola Tsolov trailing by four-tenths.
Ugo Ugochukwu went wide on the exit of turn 6/7, kicking up grass and dirt onto the track.
There was plenty of traffic all over the circuit, which will make Qualifying this afternoon hard for drivers to get competitive times in if they don’t judge their placement on the track correctly. The driver’s were also battling with track limits, pushing their cars to the max.
Câmara set off on his first flying lap, clearing the field and crossing the line in P1, three-tenths clear of P2.
20 minutes on the clock
Câmara set off on another flying lap, and had a purple first sector, but a yellow flag halted his progression, with Nicola Marinangeli spinning at the last corner. Charlie Wurz crossed the line in P2, two-tenths of Câmara’s previous time.
With the end of the session replicating Qualifying simulations, only 5 drivers remained on track, while the rest headed to the pits.
Tramnitz set out on a flying lap, with purple sectors in one and three, crossing the line in P1 and knocking Câmara off the top position. This time was deleted due to track limits where he ran wide at the chicane, with him dropping down to P6.
The driver’s that had previously pitted slowly started to trickle out onto the track, going for their final times of the session.
Câmara improved on his previous lap time, now being the first driver in the 1.33s. Tasanpol Inthraphuvasak followed in P2 four-tenths behind, and Noah Strømsted in P3 less than a tenth behind him.
Louis Sharp had a lock up into turn 1, losing the rear of his Rodin Motorsport vehicle.
Roman Bilinksi crossed the line in P2, but Benavides followed with a quicker time, now taking P2.
RED FLAG
Tsolov stopped on track into turn 12, with his vehicle switching in and out of gears and he was unable to get the car out of neutral. With this result, the session was red flagged, and the last 3 minutes ticked down on the clock. Driver’s also continued to lose lap times, with track limits being exceeded throughout the session.
Tramnitz is also under investigation for failing to follow race Directors instructions for a practice start infringement, which will be looked at after the session.
Câmara finished in P1, with Benavides and Bilinski following in P2 and P3.
Results from the F3 Hungarian GP Practice session
- R. Câmara
- B. Benavides
- R. Bilinski
- T. Inthraphuvasak
- N. Strømsted
- N. Tsolov
- C. Wurz
- B. Del Pino
- M. Boya
- U. Ugochukwu
- L. Van Hoepen
- T. Tramnitz
- N. León
- T. Taponen
- B. Badoer
- A. Giusti
- S. Ramos
- M. Zagazeta
- M. Stenshorne
- L. Sharp
- C. Voisin
- N. Lacorte
- T. Naël
- J. Wharton
- J. Hedley
- G. Xie
- C. Ho
- I. Domingues
- N. Johnson
- N. Marinangeli
