Rafael Câmara went fastest in Formula 3 qualifying Friday afternoon around the Bahrain International Circuit as Trident once again showed their one-lap prowess with Charlie Wurz finishing in third place.

By Daniele Spadi

Câmara was one of the few drivers who opted to use only two sets of tyres rather than three throughout qualifying. As Nikola Tsolov led Christian Ho and James Wharton after the first runs, Câmara had still yet to set a representative lap time halfway into the session.

Nevertheless, he asserted himself as the driver to beat, propelling himself to third on his first run before setting a scorching 1:49.214 right at the end of the session to claim his second pole position of the season.

Only Callum Voisin on a 1:49.370 was within four tenths of the Brazilian in the end. He had also used just two sets of new tyres but set the best time of the second runs on a 1:49.882 ahead of Alessandro Giusti, with Câmara in third and early pacesetter Tsolov fourth. 

The battle for third was won by third-placed Wurz, who ended qualifying 0.404s behind his teammate. He had set the exact same time as DAMS’ Ho but crucially did so earlier in the session.

The result marks Wurz’s first top-three finish in an F3 qualifying session, usurping his previous best result of sixth last time out. And with Noah Strømsted seventh, Trident found themselves with all three cars in the top seven for the second time running following their impressive display in Melbourne, where they locked out the front row.

Behind Ho, who brought home new team DAMS’ best result in any session thus far, two rookies enjoyed their best outings in an F3 car so far. MP Motorsport’s Bruno Del Pino finished an impressive fifth, matching teammate Tim Tramnitz’s qualifying result from round one, while ART reached the top six for the first time this season thanks to Tuukka Taponen’s last qualifying run.

Alongside Strømsted, Tsolov will complete the fourth row of the feature race, taking home his first top 10 qualifying result of the season . MP Motorsport’s Giusti was ninth ahead of debutant Freddie Slater, who took over the AIX seat left vacant by Nikita Bedrin and impressed by finishing only 0.310s off third place.

Thanks to Martinius Stenshorne and Joshua Dufek, who finished 11th and 12th respectively, Hitech locked out the front row for the sprint race, with the latter set to start from pole position on Saturday.

Trident have a healthy 27-point advantage in the teams’ standings, and they appear likely to continue fighting for podiums and race wins – and potentially the championship – throughout the season.  Such a strong start across the board also means their drivers are often in close quarters with one another on track.

“I think it’s always the same,” Câmara told Feeder Series in the post-session press conference when asked about the added challenge of racing against his teammates. “Of course you just have the respect for the other competitors, so the way you’re battling with the others is the same as always.”

Wurz echoed his teammate’s thoughts. “In the end you race your teammates the same. Of course we want a good result for the teams championship, but also as a driver you want a good result in the drivers’,” he said.

“The most important thing is to race clean and get points. That’s what we saw last year that [Leonardo] Fornaroli did well., Fornaroli, the 2024 F3 champion for Trident, had 18 points finishes in 20 outings and took home the drivers’ title despite never winning a single race.

Both Câmara and Wurz were also wary of declaring victory too early.

“We just have to keep our heads down and focus on making steps forward, because everyone is improving,” Wurz told Feeder Series.

“It’s a new car, so everyone’s always making steps [forward], so we just have to focus on fine-tuning everything – getting the package right, getting my driving right – and then whatever happens on Sunday happens.”

“It’s true that we have a good package,” Câmara added. “We’ve started the right way, but it doesn’t mean that we can relax now. There’s still a lot of work to do, and we just need to keep pushing [and continue] how we started the season. We keep our heads down and keep working [the way] we’ve started since the pre-season test.”

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency