Really clean 19 laps for Ugo Ugochukwu who managed to keep his P2 after a calm race. He won the championship with 159 points, while Freddie Slater only has 145 points.

For the first time in the feeder series categories in Madrid, the poleman kept the advantage at the first turn, so Tuukka Taponen remained first. Freddie Slater lost a position behind and found himself in P9. Ernesto Rivera locked his tyres and almost took Alessandro Giusti with him. Yevan David tried to attack Enzo Deligny but failed to pass, giving the opportunity to Slater to come back. As they were in a tricky part of the track, the Trident driver couldn’t overtake. He managed to do so on lap 5 in Turn 1.

“Some days it goes your way, some days it doesn’t” – Freddie Slater

Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi clipped a wall on lap 5, bringing out the yellow flag. However, he managed to go back into the pit and avoid making a safety car. With only 9 laps remaining, Slater was more aggressive on Deligny, while Ugochukwu lost the DRS on Taponen in front. However, the Campos driver came back behind the MP Motorsport one lap later. Kato also had a great rhythm as he came back only 0.3 behind Clerot for the last spot on the podium.

Keeping it clean

Yevan David lost his rear, which gave the opportunity to Ernesto Rivera to overtake for P9. Hiyu Yamakoshi had an issue and stopped on Turn 8, bringing the Safety Car out with two laps remaining. The marshall went really quick to recover the car to give us one last lap of racing. Taponen restarted really early, taking Ugochukwu a bit aback as Clerot came close to him. Garfias had an issue in the back with a contact with Stromsted, but managed to go back. The grid stayed like that and Tuukka Taponen won his first Formula 3 race. Staying P2, Ugo Ugochukwu won the title, in front of his rivals Freddie Slater who finished P8. He became the first American driver to win the title in that category.

When asking Freddie Slater about the title fight and his mechanical issue in Monza before the weekend, he answered: “Yeah of course it could cost me the championship but at the end of the day that’s motorsport. Some days it goes your way, some days it doesn’t. The motorsport gods that day decided it was not my time to put a nice big points gap between me and Ugo Ugochukwu going into Madrid. So, that’s part of it and now we reset, we united as a team and we focus on Madrid. We need to execute well on qualifying, put ourselves in good conditions for the races. Monza is in the history now and we don’t look back on that“. He was right to assume qualifying would be important. It was very hard to overtake on this track, and it’s also part of a reason it prevented him to come back into the front after his failed qualifying on Friday.