Finlay McSporran
Published: 21:11, 7th September 2025
The Thai driver lead home a Campos 1-2, overtaking Trident to secure their first teams championship.
Whilst Trident lost out in the end, their star driver Rafael Camara produced a championship drive, going from p30 – p5 ensuring they didn’t go down without a fight.
Race Report
An even start from the front two allowed them to maintain their positions, as Benavides lead Ugochukwu into the first corner. Further behind, Inthraphuvasak got past the Prema of Noel Leon to get himself into third.
This helped their chances of securing the teams title, however they still had to overturn a 16 points deficit heading into the race. Thankfully for them they were thrown a lifeline when Charlie Wurz, the highest running Trident, pulled over on lap one with damage, which was a significant blow to their title challenge.
That resulted in a brief safety car, but they were quickly underway again on lap 3, with Benavides maintaining his lead over Ugochukwu into turn one. The McLaren backed driver had a great run however through Curva Grande, and made the move into the Roggia chicane. Benavides went wide to maintain the lead, however his team, likely sensing a penalty, told him to give the place back which he did…
Right before they hit the main straight, allowing Benavides to blast past with DRS and back into the lead on lap four, with Inthraphuvasak also sneaking past and into second.
Later that same lap, Ugochukwu would retake the place into the turn 4 Roggia chicane, however their battle was interrupted, after debutant Ferando Barrichello spun and beached his car at the Ascari chicane.
Inthraphuvasak’s struggles continued as racing resumed on lap seven, dropping down to fifth behind Tsolov and Leon. Fifth soon became fourth however, as second place driver Ugochukwu also spun at Ascari after contact with the gravel flicked up by Barichello’s incident.
That brought out yet another safety car, and racing resumed on lap 11 as we hit the halfway mark, with the top five being Benavides, Tsolov, Leon, Inthraphuvasak and Matias Zagazeta. Reigning champ Rafael Camara was also quietly having a good drive, as he was up to 15th having started dead last in 30th.
With DRS now enabled once again, Tsolov took full advantage to blast past Benavides and into the lead on lap 13. The American wasn’t going down without a fight however, and pulled off a great move round the outside of the Roggia to retake the lead.
Further back and the Dams of Zagazeta was struggling to keep up. As they approached the Ascari chicane Tuka Taponen made a lunge down the inside, which forced the Peruvian driver off the and out of the race.
At the same corner two laps later Inthraphuvasak, who was now in third, also made a lunge down the inside, this time without any contact. Tsolov was on the counter attack just one lap later however, passing his teammate down the inside of turn one.
Meanwhile, the remaining Trident’s of Stromsted and Camara battled their way up the order and into the points, as the fought to keep their title dreams alive.
Lap 17 and Inthraphuvasak was once again side by side with his teammate going into turn one. This time he went round the outside, and broke late enough to not only get ahead of Tsolov, but Benavides as well, taking the lead with a great piece of driving.
Tsolov managed to follow him through making it a 1-2 for Campos, as they put one hand on the teams trophy with just few laps left.
By lap 19 Camara had got himself up into fifth place, as tried desperately to help his team secure the title. But with Campos 1-2 and their third driver Mari Boya in the points in ninth for backup, Trident’s dream of winning the teams championship was becoming less likely every lap.
A botched attempt at an overtake for Benavides left him vulnerable to Leon, who swooped past at the first Lesmo to take a spot on the podium on the penultimate lap of the race.
But all the headlines will be about the two drivers ahead of him, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and Nikola Tsolov, who crossed the line first and second respectively to give Campos their first ever Formula 3 teams title.
Debrief
And… breathe.
It was an exciting end to what has been a thrilling season of FIA Formula 3. There was drama up and down the order, from the arrival of Dams as a new team, to the record-breaking success of champion Rafael Camara.
The Brazilian driver had a season to remember, claiming the record for most poles in a season (5), and most feature race wins in a season (4). And he capped it all off with a charging drive from 30th to 5th in todays race, his final race in the series having secured the title.
It was also a great season for teams champions Campos. The Spanish outfit won 6/20 races this year, taking 14 podiums in total. This was only the second time in F3’s modern history that a team other than Prema have won the title. It was a disappointing year for the Italian outfit, a storyline that has played out throughout the course of this season, as they finished seventh in the end.
Formula 3 returns next year at the Australian Grand Prix on the sixth of March.
Final Race Results:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | Campos Racing | |
| 2 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos Racing | +0.732s |
| 3 | Noel Leon | Prema Racing | +2.152s |
| 4 | Brad Benavides | AIX Racing | +3.844s |
| 5 | Rafael Camara | Trident | +5.107s |
| 6 | Noah Stromsted | Trident | +5.425s |
| 7 | Roman Bilinski | Rodin Motorsport | +5.802s |
| 8 | Alessandro Giusti | MP Motorsport | +6.325s |
| 9 | Mari Boya | Campos Racing | +6.718s |
| 10 | Tim Tramnitz | MP Motorsport | +10.820s |
| 11 | Bruno del Pino | MP Motorsport | +11.379s |
| 12 | Callum Voisin | Rodin Motorsport | +13.104s |
| 13 | Christian Ho | DAMS | +13.153s |
| 14 | Brando Badoer | Prema Racing | +13.754s |
| 15 | Tuukka Taponen | ART Grand Prix | +14.975s |
| 16 | James Wharton | ART Grand Prix | +15.077s |
| 17 | James Hedley | Van Amersfoort Racing | +15.462s |
| 18 | Theophile Nael | Van Amersfoort Racing | +15.645s |
| 19 | Nicola Marinangeli | AIX Racing | +16.535s |
| 20 | Nikita Johnson | Hitech | +41.867s |
| 21 | Martinius Stenshorne | Hitech | +52.175s |
| 22 | Nicola Lacorte | DAMS | +1m08.355s |
| 23 | Laurens van Hoepen | ART Grand Prix | +1 lap |
| Ret | Ivan Domingues | Van Amersfoort Racing | |
| Ret | Louis Sharp | Rodin Motorsport | |
| Ret | Matias Zagazeta | DAMS | |
| Ret | Ugo Ugochukwu | Prema Racing | |
| Ret | Fernando Barrichello | AIX Racing | |
| Ret | Gerrard Xie | Hitech | |
| Ret | Charlie Wurz | Trident |
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