FEATURE RACE: Câmara seals 2025 title with commanding Budapest win

Rafael Câmara claimed the 2025 Formula 3 Drivers’ Championship in style, taking his fourth win of the season in dominant fashion, converting pole into the top step and the title.

Mari Boya finished P2 for Campos Racing ahead of Tuukka Taponen of ART Grand Prix in third.

AS IT HAPPENED

The race got underway with a rolling start and Câmara retained the lead comfortably from pole ahead of Boya and Taponen in second and third places.

Tim Tramnitz’s slender hopes of remaining in title contention took a blow early on as he spun at Turn 7 to fall down the order having started P16.

Ugo Ugochukwu was making quick progress having gone from seventh on the grid, and he claimed P5 on Lap 2 with a pass around the outside of Théophile Nael at the second corner.

While the conditions remained damp, DRS was enabled on Lap 3 and Boya remained within a second of the race leader and his title rival, as the top two began to pull away from the rest of the pack.

The Campos driver piled the pressure on with the fastest lap of the race, and he attempted a move into Turn 2 but couldn’t’ find the traction to make it stick.

The Safety Car was deployed on Lap 4 with AIX Racing driver Brad Benavides in the tyre wall at the exit of Turn 13 following contact with Rodin Motorsport’s Roman Bilinski.

Racing got back underway entering Lap 7, and Câmara retained the advantage out in front while teammate Charlie Wurz moved himself up to P6 at Turn 1 with a pass on Nael.

Ugochukwu looked set to complete an overtake on Gerrard Xie for P4 at Turn 5 but was tagged into a spin by the Hitech TGR driver. It brought out the Safety Car once again with both suffering race-ending damage and stopping on track.

The Safety Car was in at the end of Lap 10, and once again Câmara got a clean restart to head the field.

Nikola Tsolov was on a charge, going from P13 to P10 on the first racing lap back to green. He got the switchback out of Turn 1 on Noah Stromsted to improve to P9 on Lap 12, and then passed James Wharton to take eighth position.

The Australian then slipped back to 10th on Lap 13, as a wide moment at Turn 13 allowed teammate Laurens van Hoepen by.

Up ahead, Tsolov was on the move once again and he improved to P7 into Turn 1 with a pass on Alessandro Giusti. Before the end of the lap, he passed Brando Badoer at Turn 14 to secure P6.

The Bulgarian closed the gap down to Nael ahead and by Lap 20, he was within a second of the Van Amersfoort Racing driver in the fight for P5.

They soon caught up to the podium battle as they joined Wurz in harrying Taponen for third position, as the clock ticked into two minutes remaining of the Feature Race following the earlier Safety Car periods.

In front of them though, nobody could prevent Câmara taking a crowning victory and the 2025 Drivers’ Championship with it.

Boya finished second while Taponen held onto third place ahead of Wurz, Nael and a charging Tsolov.

Badoer was P7 for PREMA Racing followed by van Hoepen in eighth, Giusti in P9 and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak 10th for Campos.

CHAMPION’S QUOTE – Rafael Câmara, TRIDENT

“Just finished the Feature Race, also closing the Championship. Just very happy how we managed the whole season, I think we have been very strong since the beginning. Now we can relax a bit before Monza, enjoy the moment a bit, because during the Championship, it’s always difficult to enjoy moments because you always need to keep your focus, so just enjoy the moment. Thank you to everyone for the support, for cheering for me, and just going to enjoy it now. Thank you!”

THE CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

With a 48-point advantage going into Monza, Câmara has clinched the 2025 Drivers’ title with a round to spare on 156 points. Boya moves up to second with his podium finish to go onto 108 points. Tsolov is now third on 106 points followed by Tim Tramnitz in fourth with 93 points, and Martinius Stenshorne in fifth with 80 points.

In the Teams’ Standings, TRIDENT head into the final round with 282 points in first position, with Campos Racing second on 263. MP Motorsport are third with 166 and ART Grand Prix follow in fourth on 144 points. Van Amersfoort Racing round out the top five on 136.

UP NEXT

The summer break gives everyone the chance to reset ahead of the final round at Monza from September 5-7.