Finlay McSporran
Published: 12:44 12 September 2026
The French driver took a commanding win, as Ugochukwu closes in on Slater at the top of the championship.
Race Report
The Frenchman started from second on the grid, alongside James Wharton on reverse grid pole.
The first ever race at the Madring circuit was about to get underway!
A good launch off the line saw Nael get ahead of Wharton into the first corner, as the rest of the field made their way through the first few corners without incident.
Wharton wasn’t done yet however. The Australian had a great run towards the turn five chicane, going side by side with Nael.
The Prema driver went deep, cutting across the chicane, but came back onto the track in the lead.
But, having overtaken Nael outside the track, Wharton handed the place back to avoid any penalties.
With his lead now restored, Nael began to extend his advantage.
Elsewhere, there was mixed fortunes for the championships contenders.
Championship leader, Freddie Slater, was down in 18th after a disastrous qualifying yesterday.
His title rival meanwhile, Ugo Ugochukwu, had settled into ninth place, taking two points out of Slaters lead.
The race as whole had settled down after the first lap, with overtaking proving to be difficult around the tight corners of the Madring circuit.
Not that it made any difference to Nael, who was cruising out in front, setting fastest lap after fastest lap.
By the sixteenth and final lap, his lead had grown to nine seconds!
Nael, took home the victory, and the 11 points with it, as he battles for third in the standings. It’s also a second win on home soil this season for Campos, after they won the feature race in Barcelona earlier in the year.
Nine seconds behind was James Wharton who finished second for Prema.
A very impressive drive from Alex Powel, who made his F3 debut just last week in Monza, saw him come home in third to secure a double podium for Prema.
Ugochukwu was promoted to eighth, after Enzo Deligny (seventh at the time) was handed a 10 second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
That means the gap in between Slater and Ugochukwu at the tops of the standings is just 12 points with two feature races to go!
And, after all the talk about red flags and crashes following the in season test, there were no incidents to speak of. All 28 cars that started the race finished the race!
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Théophile Naël | Campos | 29:58.139 |
| 2 | James Wharton | Prema | +8.993s |
| 3 | Alex Powell | Prema | +11.227s |
| 4 | Bruno Del Pino | Van Amersfoort | +13.711s |
| 5 | Alessandro Giusti | MP Motorsport | +14.543s |
| 6 | Ernesto Rivera | Campos | +15.307s |
| 7 | Jin Nakamura | Hitech | +20.369s |
| 8 | Ugo Ugochukwu | Campos | +20.857s |
| 9 | Taito Kato | ART | +22.027s |
| 10 | Tuukka Taponen | MP Motorsport | +23.617s |
| 11 | Pedro Clerot | Rodin | +25.563s |
| 12 | Matteo De Palo | Trident | +26.749s |
| 13 | Fionn Mclaughlin | Hitech | +27.225s |
| 14 | Mattia Colnaghi | MP Motorsport | +28.178s |
| 15 | Enzo Deligny | Van Amersfoort | +29.535s |
| 16 | Yevan David | AIX | +36.824s |
| 17 | Hiyu Yamakoshi | Van Amersfoort | +37.151s |
| 18 | Freddie Slater | Trident | +37.585s |
| 19 | Maciej Gladysz | ART | +38.013s |
| 20 | Noah Stromsted | Trident | +38.569s |
| 21 | Brando Badoer | Rodin | +39.526s |
| 22 | Jose Garfias | Prema | +40.270s |
| 23 | Nicola Lacorte | Dams | +40.746s |
| 24 | Kanato Le | ART | +42.832s |
| 25 | Fernando Barrichello | AIX | +43.817s |
| 26 | Woohyun Shin | Hietch | +44.822s |
| 27 | Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi | Dams | +47.139s |
| 28 | Niccolo Maccagnani | Rodin | +48.115s |
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