Last time out in Spa, Stromsted and Benavides were the drivers that came out on top. However, one week later, those two were nowhere to be seen. Rafael Câmara swept back onto the scene to steal the limelight from just about everyone, becoming the 2025 FIA Formula 3 champion with one round to spare. Here’s how it all unfolded at the 2025 F3 Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Chronicle Headlines
- Rafael Câmara topped the time sheets in the one and only Practice Session at the 2025 F3 Hungarian Grand Prix.
- The Brazilian Driver went on to claim his fifth pole position of the year in Qualifying.
- Tsanapol Inthraphuvasak controlled the Sprint Race from Reverse Pole to claim victory and back-to-back podiums at the Hungaroring.
- Leading the grid from Pole, Rafael Câmara controlled the Feature Race from start to finish to claim his fourth Feature Race victory of the year.
- In doing so, Câmara became the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Champion with a round to spare.
Free Practice – Câmara on Top
Championship Leader Rafael Câmara finished Friday’s Practice Session in Hungary in P1. Ahead of the weekend, the Brazilian Driver knew that were things to go his way at the Hungaroring, he could leave as the 2025 Formula 3 Champion by the end of Sunday. Going quickest in the sole practice session was a steady way for him to begin making this dream a reality.
American Brad Benavides and Pole Roman Bilinski rounded out the top three. Both drivers were less than 0.2 seconds behind Câmara. Inthraphuvasak and Stromsted finished the session in P4 and P5. This meant that there were four different teams in the top five for practice. This further highlights the closeness of racing and the ability of the drivers in Formula 3 this year.
Practise for the Hungarian round of the Formula 3 Championship was a pretty straightforward affair. Drivers went through the motions and as the session went on, the times naturally improved. Championship hopeful Nikola Tsolov brought the session to an early end though. His Campos Racing car came to a halt at T12. It wasn’t the the start to the weekend that the Bulgarian will have wanted for the closest thing that he has to a home race.
Qualifying – Câmara Takes Pole
Ugochukwu Bouncing Back
Ugo Ugochukwu has been going through somewhat of a renaissance recently. The PREMA driver has had a tough time of it in Formula 3 in 2025. But in recent rounds, he’s been able to improve and demonstrate once again the type of driver that many know him to be. Ugochukwu set the pace early on in qualifying finishing P7 and putting him firmly in the mix for both races across the weekend.
Campos’ Master Plan
Campos deployed an alternate qualifying strategy to most of those around them. They opted to wait for an emptier track to be available to them in the hopes of achieving faster lap times as a result. Their gamble paid off for in the end for two of their drivers, Mari Boya and Tsanapol Inthraphuvasak. The former would start Sunday’s race on the front row in P2 while the latter would start the Sprint Race from Reverse Pole. It was a less successful risk however for their third driver, Nikola Tsolov. Off the back of a difficult practice session, he would start both races from P21.
Câmara Continues to Build Momentum
While he struggled to find his footing due to understeer with the car early on in the qualifying session, Rafael Câmara wasn’t in trouble for very long. The Trident driver was able to put a lap together when it mattered the most. In doing so, he claimed his fifth pole position for the year – a new Formula 3 record.
“I also feel as the driver, it’s more simple for what you need to do each run, and I think that’s why quali has been so strong.” – Rafael Câmara
The next step to becoming Formula 3 Champion in Budapest was complete. With Tsolov and Tramnitz, his nearest Championship rivals, starting from P21 and P17 respectively, the racing Gods appeared to have smiled down kindly upon the Brazilian.
Noteworthy Performances
Taponen finished qualifying in P3 with Gerard Xie in P4 – both of them securing their best qualifying results of of the season so far. Wharton and Hedley would finish in P11 and P12 respectively – solid efforts from both drivers too who will be aiming (and need) to finish the season strong. Stenshorne is usually near the sharp end in Formula 3. But qualifying didn’t go his way this time out and he was only able to muster a time worthy of P20.
Sprint Race – Controlled Victory from Inthraphuvasak
Opening Lap Drama
Inthraphuvasak and Hedley lined up on the front row of the grid for Saturday’s Sprint Race in Budapest. When the lights went out, all thirty drivers provided us with a surprisingly clean opening few corners. However, this good behaviour sadly didn’t last for the entirety of lap one. Domingues and Van Hoepen caught each other out heading into the T6/7 chicane, going off-piste and missing the chicane entirely. But both drivers were able to make it back to the pits and were able to re-join the race. Upon re-examination, Domingues had launched a bit of a hail Mary move around the outside of Van Hoepen heading into T6 and this is what then took them both out.
Ugochukwu ran wide at T12, clipping Giusti’s front left as he did so. He broke the French Driver’s suspension as a result. Giusti had to pull over at the side of the track just before T13 and retire from the race. Thus, the Safety Car emerged from the pits for the first time in the Sprint Race.
Race Restart and Sprint Race Battles
The Safety Car returned to the pits at the close of lap three as the remaining drivers prepared to start racing again coming into lap four. Both Leon and Stenshorne had some off track excursions on the restart. The former went wide at T7 and destroyed both a Pirelli board and a camera on the way down to T8.
Further up the order, Ugochukwu made a couple of nice overtakes to make his way into the podium positions. However, the American would have the sword of an investigation for taking out Giusti hanging over his head for the remainder of the race. In the end though, nothing would come of this investigation.
Nicola Lacorte was the next driver to retire from the race, also with suspension damage, while a neat little battle between Hedley and Ugochukwu followed. The pair fought each other going into T2 but there wasn’t a change in position with Hedley remaining out in front.
Benavides fell down the order on L13 all the way down to P28. He was subsequently told to box and retire the car. This was later attributed to a broken rear toe link.
Further back, Câmara began to slowly make his way up the order with some smooth but bold overtakes. Ahead of him, Wurz, Wharton and Hedley now did battle with one another in the opening stages of L15. Ugochukwu finally passed Hedley and was now busy trying to chase down Inthraphuvasak.
Dramatic Collision and a Last Lap Shootout
Behind this threesome, Leon and Nael were busy in a battle of their own. So focused on duelling each other, the pair went off track together at T4. They made contact, bringing out the Safety Car and putting Leon firmly out of the race.
By the time the Safety Car went back into the pits, there was only time for a one lap shootout. With the pack bunched up again, this was Ugochukwu’s best chance at stealing victory from Inthraphuvasak. But on the restart, Ugochukwu locked up going into T1 and with the screech of tyres, he lost all hope for achieving a win. Behind him though, the battle between Wurz, Wharton and Hedley resumed with Wurz coming out on top.
Inthraphuvasak crossed the line in P1, claiming back-to-back podiums in Hungary after his appearance there last year. Ugochukwu had to settle for P2 and Wurz finished in P3. Hedley finished in P4 – his best finish to date in Formula 3. Wharton came home in P5 with Badoer in P6. Boya, Câmara, Naël and Xie rounded out the top ten.
Câmara scored more points than expected in the Sprint Race with his methodical moves and took yet another tantalisingly close step to claiming the Formula 3 Championship. All eyes were now on the Feature Race.
Feature Race – Could Câmara Become Champion?
There were wet conditions waiting for the drivers on Sunday morning ahead of the penultimate Feature Race of the 2025 Formula 3 Season. The Safety Car led the grid away on the formation lap before it was announced that there would be a rolling start. Immediately, Rafael Câmara would be put to the test in a race that could see him become Formula 3 Champion.
Race Start & an Inevitable Safety Car
Amusingly, the start to the Feature Race was cleaner than the opening of Saturday’s Sprint Race. Del Pino did spin at T1 and Championship contender Tramnitz did the same at T7 but both were able to keep going.
However, the well behaved racing didn’t last long. Brad Benavides crashed out at T13 at the end of his third lap. The American made contact with Roman Bilinski in what was essentially a racing incident. Bilinski’s front right clipped the rear left of Benavides and nerfed him off into the barriers. Naturally the Safety Car came out as a result.
Race Restart & Ugochukwu Vs Xie
The Safety Car came in back into the pits at the end of lap six for the race to restart at the beginning of lap seven. Once again, Câmara controlled things nicely and was able to keep Boya at bay behind. We got to witness some close racing from the get go but like the opening of the race, it was all fairly well behaved.
However, that changed when Ugochukwu became a little impatient as he attempted to pass Gerard Xie for P4. The pair had some close encounters early on on lap ten and were very nip and tuck with one another. But, coming into T5, the two came together as Xie wasn’t able to avoid making contact with Ugochukwu. It’s not a traditional part of the track to attempt an overtake but Xie should also take some blame for the incident too. Both drivers were now out of the race thanks to the damage sustained to their cars. The Safety Car re-emerged.
Race Restart Take #2
The Safety Car returned to the pits at the end of lap ten. Again, Câmara controlled the restart with ease, frustrating Boya behind. Midway through T13 at the end of lap eleven, James Hedley was hit by Noel Leon. He was spun around but able to keep going. Leon received a ten second penalty for his antics.
Elsewhere on track, Nikola Tsolov began slicing his way up through the field, as did Louis Sharp. After starting in P21 and P28 respectively, Tsolov would rise as high as P6 before the end of the race, with Sharp making it up to P11. Sadly for Sharp, he was just one place away from being rewarded for his efforts with a Championship point. Close but no cigar for the New Zealander.
Race Against the Clock
Due to the interruptions by the Safety Car, the Feature Race became a timed race. There were now just thirteen minutes left on the clock. Then, with under eleven minutes left on the clock, Stenshorne, down in P18, was called into the pits to change onto slick tyres. It was a very left field gamble for the team to make but one worth risking as Stenshorne had nothing to lose. A few others followed suit but the track wasn’t yet dry enough for it to be a successful gambit. Those who switched ventured off track on numerous occasions and weren’t able to work their way up through the field.
Câmara Claims Victory in Budapest
Out in front, it appeared that when it came to strategy, Rafael Câmara had once again played a blinder. Boya had been close behind him all race long. But in the final minutes of the race, Câmara pulled out a gap of over two seconds to the Campos Racing Driver. Câmara met the chequered flag first and with that, he took not only his fourth Feature Race win of the season, but the 2025 Formula 3 Championship.
“Everything can change very quickly, you just have to make sure you are always in the right mindset.” – Rafael Câmara
Boya would have to settle for second while Taponen was just able to keep Wurz at bay to finish in third. Wurz, Naël and Tsolov finished close behind him in fourth, fifth and sixth. Badoer, Van Hoepen, Giusti and Inthraphuvasak rounded out the top ten.
Rafael Câmara – 2025 Formula 3 Champion
Coming into the weekend, Rafael Câmara knew that it would be possible to emerge on the other side of it as Formula 3 Champion. But he probably dared not believe that the road to him securing this title would be so smooth. From practice on Friday all the way until crossing the finish line at the end of Sunday’s Feature Race, the Brazilian didn’t look flustered once. Pole position, points in the Sprint Race courtesy of some opportunistic moves and a dominant victory in the Feature Race all came his way with apparent ease.
“To win as a rookie is something very special” – Rafael Câmara
It helped too that of the four nearest to him in the Championship, Boya, Tramnitz, Tsolov and Stenshorne, only Boya was ever really in a position to threaten him. For those four drivers, there will be a lot of soul searching and analysis as to where everything started going wrong for them over the summer break. This won’t be helped by the fact that they were beaten, dominated really, by a rookie driver too. Anything that they discover may help them to prevent Câmara from taking a victory lap in Monza.
History in the Making
For Câmara though, he’s achieved what we’ve rarely borne witness to in Formula 3. He became Trident’s third Formula 3 Champion in a row about Gabriel Bortoleto and Leonardo Fornaroli. It’s the first time a driver has won the FRECA and Formula 3 Championships back-to-back since Oscar Piastri – and we all know where that’s led him. It’s also the first time in Formula 3 history that a driver has won the title with a round to spare. You have to go back to when the series was known as GP3 to find the last time that it happened. On that occasion, it was a certain George Russell that had the honours.
“After Monza, for sure it will be Formula 2 next year.” – Rafael Câmara
So while there are many great stories from this weekend as Formula 3 visited Hungary, they will all pale in comparison to the main headline that Rafael Câmara is the 2025 Formula 3 Champion.
Formula 3 returns September 5th in Monza for the Season Finale.
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Feature Image: Formula Motorsport Ltd.
[…] in the F2 season after the upcoming summer break, but it’s all still to play for. In F3, rookie Rafael Camara stormed to take the Championship this weekend with one round to go – now, last year’s champion […]