Brad Benavides ends FIA F3 post-season testing on top

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

AIX Racing’s Brad Benavides ended FIA Formula 3 post-season testing on top at Imola on Wednesday afternoon.

The final session lasted two-and-a-half hours, shorter than the regular length, and the track was busy early on.

Campos Racing’s Ernesto Rivera registered the first flying lap, a 1m33.121s, which was beaten 11 minutes in by Rodin’s Christian Ho. He set a 1m32.782s, which he would not improve on as longer runs were attempted.

Red flags waved three minutes later as Trident’s Freddie Slater found the gravel at turn 14, and there was a seven-minute stoppage.

Only MP Motorsport’s Mattia Colnaghi and Hitech GP’s Michael Shin had not set flying laps after half an hour, and Ho led Benavides by 0.072 seconds and Campos Racing’s Theophile Nael by 0.137s.

Benavides soon lowered the pace to 1m32.510s, and Colnaghi’s first flying put him 0.17s behind but it was deleted for exceeding track limits at turn 10.

MP’s drivers set personal bests over the next 10 minutes, with Alessandro Giusti posting a 1m32.926s to sit third before Tuukka Taponen got within 0.122s of Benavides in second place. Colnaghi then registered a flying lap that stood, a 1m32.792s that demoted Giusti to fifth.

Most drivers were in the pits at the end of hour one, and at the 70-minute mark Benavides grew his gap at the top by improving to 1m32.201s. The track remained quiet, and by the end of hour two only Slater and team-mate Matteo De Palo were driving.

It gradually got busier in the final hour, and with 36 minutes left of testing Trident’s Noah Stromsted lapped 0.623s off Benavides’s benchmark to rise to fifth place.

More drivers were heading out, and on a packed track Shin crashed at turn four which brought out red flags. There were 17 minutes to go when green flags waved again, and lots of drivers headed out for their last laps of 2025.

De Palo went second fastest seven minutes from the end, 0.39s slower than Benadives, and Stromsted improved to fourth with a 1m32.668s. He set another personal best, finding a gain of 0.034s, with two-and-a-half minutes left on the clock.

Afternoon session results