QUALIFYING: Câmara takes fourth pole of 2025 in style

Rafael Câmara was in formidable form in Barcelona Qualifying, taking his fourth pole position in the opening five rounds of the 2025 season.

The TRIDENT driver set a 1:28.761 for the top spot, 0.2s clear of Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov and ART Grand Prix driver Laurens van Hoepen in third.

The battle for track position started immediately as drivers sought the ideal place to gain a tow but avoid traffic ahead of them. Eventually Noah Stromsted won a place at the front of the queue with TRIDENT teammate Rafael Câmara right behind him.

The TRIDENT pair completed their laps, but they were instantly beaten by Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak on a 1:29.433, who set the early benchmark.

Tuukka Taponen beat that on his first flying lap as ART Grand Prix opted to run their trio off sequence and later than the rest. The Finn pipped Inthraphuvasak by 0.042s, as teammate James Wharton slotted into third place.

Track limits became a big factor as drivers returned to the pitlane, with several drivers losing their original times for exceeding track limits. Tim Tramnitz was one of those along with Tsolov, leaving both without a lap going into the second runs.

Tsolov delivered a time good enough for P4 to kick off the second round of laptimes, but Câmara behind was flying.

A 1:28.761 put him on provisional pole ahead of the ART’s van Hoepen, while Alessandro Giusti and Tramnitz followed in third and fourth.

Into the final runs, Câmara told his team he’d wait to head back out in order to get a clean track, while his rivals rejoined the circuit to try and dislodge him from P1.

But nobody could prevent Câmara from sealing his fourth pole of the season and the Aramco Pole Position Award. Tsolov and van Hoepen were his closest challengers in second and third after the Campos driver improved on his last attempt.

Théophile Nael moved himself up to P4 at the chequered flag, one place ahead of Van Amersfoort Racing teammate Santiago Ramos in P5.

Giusti wound up sixth in the end ahead of the third VAR car of Ivan Domingues in seventh. Stromsted, Taponen and Tramnitz rounded out the top 10.

Martinius Stenshorne finished 11th in front of Wharton in12th, with the ART driver set to start from reverse grid pole in the Sprint Race.

The FIA Formula 3 Sprint Race is scheduled to get started at 10:05 local time with Wharton starting from Pole Position.