FEATURE RACE: Câmara in control to win third race of 2025

Rafael Câmara earned his third race victory of the 2025 FIA Formula 3 season, controlling two Safety Car restarts to convert his pole position into P1 on the podium.

Théophile Nael earned P2 for Van Amersfoort Racing while Alessandro Giusti completed a final lap overtake to take P3 for MP Motorsport, his first podium in the Championship.

AS IT HAPPENED

Câmara aced his start but Nikola Tsolov didn’t, he was slow to get up to speed and fell to eighth by the time they made Turn 1.

The Championship leader retained the lead ahead of Laurens van Hoepen and Nael in second and third respectively as the top three built a comfortable gap to Tuukka Taponen in fourth by the end of the first lap.

Contact between Roman Bilinski and Jose Garfias brought out the Safety Car on Lap 3, the pair tangling at Turn 4 and coming to a halt.

With their cars cleared, racing resumed going onto Lap 8 and after a great start from P10 on the grid, Martinius Stenshorne claimed P4 from Taponen at the first corner.

The Finn’s day was made worse on the following lap as he slowed and dropped to the back of the field.

Alessandro Giusti moved up into the top five as a result and that soon became fourth, with a pass on Stenshorne into the first corner on Lap 11.

The top three continued to break away from the chasing pack and were two seconds clear by Lap 14, as van Hoepen and Nael remained within DRS range in the lead battle.

Further back, Tsolov moved himself back into the top five with a DRS pass on Stenshorne on Lap 17. Ivan Domingues repeated the move on the following lap to demote the Hitech TGR driver to seventh position.

Lap 18 and contact between Nicola Lacorte and Brando Badoer resulted in the PREMA Racing driver getting stuck in the gravel trap at Turn 1, bringing out the Safety Car once more.

Racing resumed on Lap 21 and van Hoepen was under pressure from Nael in the podium battle. The Frenchman pulled off a brave overtake on the outside of Turn 1 to move up to second.

Their fighting allowed Câmara to escape up the road and out of DRS range and he went on to claim win number three of 2025 for TRIDENT.

Nael completed a strong weekend for VAR by finishing second and after a last lap overtake into Turn 1, Giusti claimed his maiden F3 podium in P3.

Van Hoepen wound up fourth for ART ahead of Tsolov in P5. Domingues was sixth with Tim Tramnitz in P7. Noah Stromsted, Martinius Stenshorne and Callum Voisin rounded out the points, after a time penalty for track limits dropped ART’s James Wharton down the order.

KEY QUOTE – Rafael Câmara, TRIDENT

“P1 – very happy with the result. Slightly different than Imola, this time we were thinking more about the tyres, so it was a good race. In the end I was able to push a bit more and go for the fastest lap, which could be important points for the Championship. So very happy!”

THE CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

Câmara extends his lead of the Drivers’ Championship and goes onto 105 points. Nikola Tsolov stays second and moves onto 79 points in second, with Tim Tramnitz third on 70. Noah Stromsted is fourth on 56 points, while Tuukka Taponen rounds out the top five with 51 points.

TRIDENT lead on 176 points in the Teams’ Standings ahead of Campos Racing in P2, now on 130. MP Motorsport are just behind on 126 points, with Van Amersfoort Racing ending a great weekend for them in fourth on 106 points. Rodin Motorsport and ART Grand Prix are tied on 90 points.

UP NEXT

The FIA Formula 3 Championship has a short pause before resuming action with Round 6 around the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, from June 27-29