Camara tops first FIA F3 practice session with new car in Melbourne

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Trident’s Rafael Camara was quickest in FIA Formula 3 free practice at Melbourne, marking the competitive debut of the Dallara F3 2025 car.

The drivers had been given 45 minutes to get to grips with the new machine, but the session was ended five minutes early after Rodin Motorsport’s Louis Sharp ground to a halt approaching turn three and red flags waved.

That locked the order in place, with a 1m34.652s having earned Camara top spot by 0.24 seconds over MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz.

Sharp was the first driver of the season to set a representative laptime six minutes into practice, his 1m38.676s leaving him 1.1s clear of team-mate Roman Bilinski.

AIX Racing’s Javier Sagrera reduced Sharp’s advantage to 0.2s, then Van Amersfoort Racing’s Santagio Ramos lowered the pace to 1m37.274s and MP Motorsport’s Bruno del Pino also bettered Sharp. However he soon reclaimed top spot with a 1m37.009s, and VAR’s Theophile Nael and Bilinski moved to within 0.3s of the new pace in third and fourth.

A flurry of changes to the top of the timesheet followed at the 15-minute mark. Sharp set a new 1m36.670s benchmark, only for Bilinski to lap 0.07s quicker. Hitech GP’s Joshua Dufek then went fastest with a 1m36.384s and found almost a whole second on his next lap to beat Bilinski’s own improved effort by 0.5s.

Martinius Stenshorne replaced his Hitech team-mate at the top approaching the halfway stage with a 1m35.402s but Camara almost immediately lapped 0.5s faster. Boya climbed to second with a lap just 0.007s shy of Camara’s time, with Tsolov and Trident’s Noah Stromsted improving into third and fourth.

Tramnitz edged Camara by 0.009s to take over in first place with 17 minutes remaining. He remained there for the next 10 minutes until Camara set a new personal best that proved unbeatable.

Tsolov improved just before the stoppage to take fourth ahead of Stromsted, and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak was the third Campos driver to make the top six.

Dufek and Stenshorne were 0.6s off the pace in seventh and eighth, with MP’s Alessandro Giusti and Ramos completing the top 10.

Free practice results