Campos’s Nikola Tsolov leads second morning of F3 pre-season running

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov was quickest on the second morning of FIA Formula 3 pre-season testing at Barcelona.

More than a third of the 30-car field headed out straight away, but over the three hours of track time there were many minutes spent in garages instead.

ART Grand Prix’s Tuukka Taponen was fastest after 10 minutes, a 1m28.879s putting him 0.376 seconds ahead of team-mate James Wharton. Rodin Motorsport’s Louis Sharp and Callum Voisin were third and fourth, with Tsolov, AIX Racing’s Nicola Marinangeli and Campos’s Mari Boya within a second of the pace.

Laurens van Hoepen made it three ART GP drivers in the top four with a 1m29.587s a short while later, and after 15 minutes Tsolov improved in fifth. There were now 20 with representative laptimes to their names, while Trident had not sent its cars out. That was rectified not long after, and AIX’s Javier Sagrera set a 1m29.503s to match Sharp’s pace 19 minutes in.

When Trident’s first flying laps of testing came in (having set none on day one), they were immediately competitive. Noah Stromsted posted a 1m27.714s to go top by 0.581s over team-mate Rafael Camara and Charlie Wurz slotted into fourth. Now only five drivers were still yet to lap at pace during the session.

There was a brief red flag period at the half-hour mark, and 37 minutes in DAMS’ Christian Ho set a 1m28.2s to go second fastest. Less than a minute later, Rodin’s Roman Bilinski lowered the pace to 1m27.372s. He led Sharp by 0.321s, and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Santiago Ramos went fourth fastest. Voisin improved in fifth, Matias Zagazeta crept up to team-mate Ho in seventh, and VAR’s Ivan Domingues demoted Camara to ninth.

Taponen was 10th, but responded with a 1m26.838s that comfortably put him ahead of Sharp. Van Hoepen reduced his advantage to 0.442s, as VAR’s Theophile Nael went eighth fastest, and a few minutes later Ramos, Sagrera and Ho all improved to stay in the top 10.

Tsolov moved up to fourth with a 1m27.426s after three quarters of an hour, shortly before Boya recorded a 1m27.36s to grab third. A 1m27.51s put Prema’s Noel Leon in sixth two minutes after that, and his team-mates improved lower down the order.

MP Motorsport’s drivers finally set flying laps towards the end of hour one, and little happened after that as teams experimented with runs on old tyres and using paraffin wax to track airflow over the new Dallara F3 2025 car.

Wharton set a 1m27.439s to six sixth after 70 minutes, as Taponen improved to 1m26.782s. Boya then cut his gap at the top with a 1m27.156s lap, before a 1m26.618s put Tsolov ahead of both.

Sagrera set a new personal best in seventh, then van Hoepen reclaimed third with a 1m26.995s. Leon went sixth fastest 79 minutes in, and approaching the session’s halfway mark Sharp and Bilinski improved in fifth and sixth.

Trident used new tyres again as the final hour began. Stromsted set a 1m26.938s to take third place, as Camara and Wurz rose to eighth and ninth. Another red flag period occurred when DAMS’ Niko Lacorte stopped on track in sector two.

Morning session results