Finlay McSporran
Published: 18:53, 18th May 2025
Santiago Ramos played the long game in todays F3 feature race around Imola, taking the lead with just three laps left to deny Rafael Camara a third straight feature race win.
A good race for Noah Stromsted sees him move up to second in the drivers championship, whilst reigning teams champions Prema continued to struggle.
Race Report
A good start for Ramos from second allowed him to jump pole-sitter Camara to take the lead at the start, however the Brazilian used his tyres and the DRS to quickly re-pass hm on lap four, a mistake that would have big consequences for him towards the end of the 22-lap race.
Elsewhere on the grid, Noah Stromsted, having started third, dropped down to fifth behind Luis Sharp and Tuukka Taponen, which would have big consequences for him also.
The Mercedes junior did eventually climb back up into the podium places, passing Sharp on lap six and Taponen on lap 10, but by that time had already fallen three seconds behind the leading pair.
Despite losing the lead to Camara, Ramos manged to stay within DRS range throughout the race which put a lot of pressure on the race leader, and left him no room for error. Their battle was briefly interrupted by the virtual safety car on lap 12 after Brad Benavides spun Ivan Domingues at the tamburello chicane, which left the Van Amersfoort driver stranded in the gravel and out of the race.
Racing resumed on lap 13 and it slowly became apparent that Camara hadn’t looked after his tyres as well as some of the others, as the gap between himself and Ramos came down lap after lap.
The patience paid off for Ramos after sitting in second for the majority of the race, and on lap 19/22 he made the move around the outside at the tamburello chicane to re-take the lead.
It wasn’t just Camara that was struggling with his tyres however, as the Prema trio of Badoer, Leon and Ugochukwu who were running 16th, 12th and 8th by the time the VSC was deployed on lap 12, had dropped down to 20th, 17th and 13th by lap 20.
One driver who certainly wasn’t struggling however was Noah Stromsted, who had just set the fastest lap of the race and was now setting after the leading pair in the closing stages, passing his teammate Camara for second on lap 20.
Stromsted was in DRS range of Ramos on the final lap but couldn’t get close enough, with the Mexican driver winning by just under three tenths of a second in the end!
Camara came home in third place for what was probably a race to forget for Trident, as Stromsted likely would have won if he hadn’t lost position at the start, whilst his teammate Camara took too much out of the tyre in the early stages which left him vulnerable towards the end.
Despite that setback however, Camara still has a healthy lead in the driver standings, being 21 points clear of Stromsted who moves up to second, whilst todays win sees Ramos move himself up to fifth.
Some of the big losers from this weekend include Callum Voisin, who was third coming into this round, but drops down to sixth having failed to score any points, and Prema, the reigning teams champions who still find themselves bottom of the standings after a difficult start to the season.
Full Race Results:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santiago Ramos | Van Amersfoort | – |
| 2 | Noah Stromsted | Trident | +0.277s |
| 3 | Rafael Camara | Trident | +6.838s |
| 4 | Tuukka Taponen | ART | +8.540s |
| 5 | Mari Boya | Campos | +13.713s |
| 6 | Tim Tramnitz | MP Motorsport | +14.887s |
| 7 | Alessandro Giusti | MP Motorsport | +15.268s |
| 8 | Roman Bilinski | Rodin | +16.315s |
| 9 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos | +16.727s |
| 10 | Laurens van Hoepen | ART | +17.829s |
| 11 | Martinius Stenshorne | Hitech | +20.516s |
| 12 | Louis Sharp | Rodin | +21.667s |
| 13 | James Wharton | ART | +26.453s |
| 14 | Ugo Ugochukwu | Prema | +27.074s |
| 15 | Joshua Dufek | Hitech | +27.345s |
| 16 | Charlie Wurz | Trident | +27.853s |
| 17 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | Campos | +29.857s |
| 18 | Callum Voisin | Rodin | +34.266s |
| 19 | Brando Badoer | Prema | +35.516s |
| 20 | Gerrard Xie | Hitech | +35.885s |
| 21 | Christian Ho | DAMS | +36.307s |
| 22 | Matias Zagazeta | DAMS | +37.379s |
| 23 | James Hedley | AIX Racing | +37.894s |
| 24 | Brad Benavides | AIX Racing | +41.212s |
| 25 | Niko Lacorte | DAMS | +42.526s |
| 26 | Theophile Nael | Van Amersfoort | +1m09.330s |
| 27 | Bruno Del Pino | MP Motorsport | +1m13.930s |
| 28 | Noel Leon | Prema | +1 lap |
| Ret | Ivan Domingues | Van Amersfoort | |
| Ret | Nicola Marinangeli | AIX Racing |
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