Rafael Câmara kicked off a potentially championship-winning weekend in dominant fashion, topping Free Practice at the Hungaroring with a lightning-fast 1:33.888 for TRIDENT. The Brazilian driver, who is widely tipped to move up to Formula 2 in 2026, immediately showed his intent with a commanding performance.

His pace put him 0.481s clear of the field during his first flying lap and remained unbeaten through the session. Late improvements from Brad Benavides (AIX Racing) and Roman Bilinski (Rodin Motorsport) earned them second and third, respectively. A Red Flag, triggered by an electrical problem from Nikola Tsolov, brought the session to an early end.

Track Conditions Improve, Field Reacts in Second Half of Practice

The session began cautiously, with many teams waiting for better grip before sending their drivers out. Gerrard Xie led the early laps for Hitech TGR with a 1:36.476, but times soon tumbled. MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz lowered the benchmark to 1:34.619, with Mari Boya close behind. Câmara then made a statement with his first push lap, jumping to P1 with a 1:34.138. Tsolov briefly closed the gap to three-tenths, while Ugo Ugochukwu continued his consistent form by lifting PREMA into the top three. Charlie Wurz, Câmara’s teammate, joined the frontrunners to make it a TRIDENT 1-2.

Drivers improve

Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, showing notable growth from last season, made a strong case for himself with a lap just 0.4s off Câmara’s top time. Benefiting from Campos Racing’s overall improvement, the Thai driver has been improving throughout the whole season, possibly aimint at a possible seat in Formula 2 in 2026.
With ten minutes to go, lap times improved across the board, with Noah Stromsted also jumping into the top three. Bilinski and Benavides both made last-minute pushes, the latter going just 0.064s off Câmara’s benchmark.