Tim Tramnitz claimed his first victory of the 2025 F3 season in Saturday’s Sprint Race at Imola, executing a perfectly timed overtake to beat MP Motorsport teammate Bruno del Pino and boost his championship aspirations.
The German driver started from the second row behind teammate Del Pino, who had secured pole position for the Sprint. Tramnitz attempted a move around the outside into Turn 1 at the race start but wisely backed out, biding his time for a more strategic approach. His patience paid off on lap three when he used the full force of DRS on the main straight to sweep past Del Pino into the lead.
Powerful DRS in Imola
“I think it’s just important to get your first win of the year on the board,” Tramnitz told media including Pit Debrief after the race. “The DRS was very powerful. I didn’t expect it to be so powerful. And I even got a little bit surprised when I tried to overtake Bruno, so it got quite close there.”
The pass on Del Pino appeared well planned, with Tramnitz revealing he had strategically built up to the move from the race start. When asked by Pit Debrief if the German driver planned his move, he explained, “I think probably what I thought was just that the situation or the opportunity might only be there very early on in the race.”
“I just pushed from the start and didn’t really think about tyre saving at that point, just tried to push on and push Bruno a little bit.”
“As soon as the DRS was enabled, I was quite close to him. Going on the main straight before the move, I honestly didn’t really think that it’s already possible to overtake him. But the DRS in the end was very powerful and then I just thought, okay, the chance might not be there later, so just go for it.”
"Important!" 😤
— Formula 3 (@Formula3) May 17, 2025
A composed victory by Tramnitz – and he knows how crucial it is as he sits P2 in the championship 💪#F3 #ImolaGP pic.twitter.com/SQI5KSUi9R
A session halted by two safety car periods
The race presented additional challenges with two safety car periods – the first triggered by Nicola Marinangeli’s mechanical failure on lap five, and the second following Matias Zagazeta’s off into the gravel trap at the restart. Tramnitz navigated both interruptions flawlessly, executing perfect restarts to maintain his advantage while holding off a determined Del Pino.
When questioned about his restart tactics, he revealed, “When you go into a race starting at the front, you’re always prepared for the situation, what happens if you are first for restart. You just watch some old onboard or some videos of what worked well and what didn’t work.”
Despite considering alternative approaches for the second restart, Tramnitz opted to stick with what had worked initially. “I saw it working quite well on restart one. For sure, I thought about changing it through the race, but I thought with this one, I was quite safe to stay in front and I felt quite confident with it.”
Tramnitz displayed impressive race management
Throughout the remaining laps of the F3 Imola GP Sprint, Tramnitz displayed impressive race management, controlling the pace while maintaining enough of a gap to counteract the significant DRS advantage Del Pino had on the straights.
“It was not easy to manage then as well, because you kind of had to push quite a bit for the second half of the lap to kind of make a gap to the car behind you to have a chance to stay in front, because it looked like the DRS was, yeah, almost seven, eight tenths. So that’s for sure, quite a lot,” he explained.
The victory comes at a crucial time in the championship battle, with points leader Rafael Câmara having demonstrated remarkable qualifying form. He became the first driver in F3 history to secure pole position in the opening three rounds of a season.
For Tramnitz, Saturday’s win represents an important step in closing the gap to his championship rival ahead of Sunday’s Feature Race. “For sure, that’s important going into the race. This was my target, obviously, to win the race,” he acknowledged.
“For tomorrow [F2 Feature Race], I hope I can use a bit of that Bahrain experience and just try to manage the tyres well. The pace looked good today, but it’s always a different story when you have other cars around you. So the management will be even more important. Let’s see with the safety cars as well. But I think we should target the top five tomorrow.”
