Ugochukwu quickest on opening day of Spielberg in-season test

Campos Racing’s Ugo Ugochukwu started the in-season test on the front foot, logging a 1:20.368 in the morning session to finish Day 1 as the fastest overall.

In the afternoon, TRIDENT driver Noah Stromsted led the way, a 1:20.451 just shy of the morning’s quickest effort.

MORNING

It was a slow start to the day but once drivers did get on track and begin setting laptimes, PREMA Racing’s James Wharton hit the front on a 1:30.918.

That early time was quickly beaten by Brad Benavides, who lowered the best effort to a more representative 1:21.870 for AIX Racing.

The first Red Flag of the day then arrived, with ART Grand Prix driver Kanato Le finding the gravel trap at Turn 7 and needing to be recovered.

Back underway and Freddie Slater briefly went fastest for TRIDENT, before Louis Sharp put PREMA back on top with a 1:20.755.

A second Red Flag followed, with the third PREMA driver Jose Garfias spinning at the final corner.

His car was recovered and the final half hour of the morning segment resumed, and there were plenty of late improvements.

Benavides hit the front but that was bettered by Slater and then Ugochukwu, with the Championship leader setting a 1:20.368 to top the morning session.

The Campos driver led the pack by 0.2s after a late improvement put Tuukka Taponen in second place for MP Motorsport, with Slater third at the chequered flag. Brando Badoer ended the morning fourth for Rodin Motorsport ahead of Benavides in P5.

AFTERNOON

ART Grand Prix started the afternoon on the front foot, going 1-2-3 early on with Taito Kato leading his teammates on a 1:21.707.

There was a quick Red Flag shortly afterwards, with Stromsted coming to a halt in his TRIDENT, but he was cleared away and the session resumed.

Kato improved his effort to go even quicker onto a 1:21.407, leading teammate Maciej Gladysz before Hitech then went to the top of the times.

Jin Nakamura fired in a 1:21.326 to lead teammate Woohyun Shin, while Fionn McLaughlin filtered through in P4 for the British team.

Long runs then became the focus for the majority of the afternoon, with race pace and lap counts taking centre stage over single-lap running.

That changed approaching the final hour as TRIDENT delivered improvements with all three drivers to go 1-2-3, this time Stromsted the fastest driver ahead of Slater and De Palo.

There were a few more improvements in the final stages of running, but nobody could beat the Dane’s 1:20.451 in the afternoon.

Slater remained P2 ahead of Nicola Lacorte for DAMS Lucas Oil in third. Sharp was fourth for PREMA ahead of De Palo in P5.

Taponen wound up P6 for MP ahead of teammate Alessandro Giusti, Ugochukwu, Mattia Colnaghi and Nakamura in the top 10.

Running is scheduled to get underway at 9am local time on Thursday for the last day of running at Red Bull Ring.

2026 FIA FORMULA 3 CHAMPIONSHIP – SPIELBERG IN-SEASON TEST, DAY 1, MORNING SESSION

2026 FIA FORMULA 3 CHAMPIONSHIP – SPIELBERG IN-SEASON TEST, DAY 1, AFTERNOON SESSION