Formula 3 produced another weekend of thrilling races in Bahrain. Feeder Series sums up the main takeaways from the second round of this year’s championship.

By Tori Turner

After an in-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit two weeks before, the series’ 30 drivers fought against hot temperatures – and one another – all weekend in Bahrain.

Having topped both the test overall and the practice session on Friday, Rafael Câmara impressed once again when it mattered, taking back-to-back pole positions and feature race wins after another disastrous sprint race on Saturday. In that race, Nikola Tsolov became the seventh driver to notch a record four wins in the series, whilst Freddie Slater contended for the win on his debut. 

• Pre-weekend roundtable: How do F3 rookies deal with the pressure of F1’s spotlight?
• Qualifying report and quotes: Trident’s Câmara takes second consecutive F3 pole in Bahrain
• Sprint race report and quotes: Tsolov fends off debuting Slater for record-tying fourth F3 win in Sakhir
• Feature race report: Câmara extends F3 points lead with dominant win in Bahrain feature

1. Câmara solidifies title favourite status

Rafael Câmara made another bold statement in Bahrain by repeating what he achieved on his Melbourne debut: scoring pole position, winning the feature race and setting the fastest overall lap. The reigning FRegional Europe champion is beginning to build up a comfortable gap in the championship, leading now by 26 points – equal to an entire feature race win plus the fastest lap.

Similar to his misfortune in Melbourne, Câmara encountered issues in Saturday’s sprint when he stalled from 12th on the grid. His slow start left him so far back that he found himself behind the medical car. Several safety car periods throughout the race, however, helped him climb back up to where he started, albeit just outside of the points-paying positions.

 While the Trident driver was unchallenged in the feature race in Australia, this time he had to battle for the win throughout the opening laps of the race. Câmara lost out on the opening lap to Rodin’s Callum Voisin, who got the overtake done on the inside of Turn 1. On lap three, Câmara successfully took back the position, only for Voisin to pounce again heading into Turn 4.

The Ferrari junior finally sealed the deal on lap five, using DRS to aid him in overtaking Voisin at Turn 1. He then pulled away and crossed the line with a 6.211-second gap over the Briton after 23 laps.

The feature race performance once again proved that Câmara is one to back for the championship in 2025. If he can find his footing in the sprint races and begin scoring points, he may prove to be unstoppable in his prospective title campaign.

2. Slater stuns on debut

Heading into the first round of the season in Melbourne, AIX Racing had not confirmed a permanent driver for their third seat. Russian-born driver Nikita Bedrin stepped into the seat in Australia, where he scored points in both races and narrowly missed out on a podium in the feature.

For Bahrain, the team opted for 16-year-old Freddie Slater, with whom they ran during the in-season test at the circuit. 

In his first F3 qualifying session, the British driver set a 1:49.928, which put him an impressive 10th overall and meant he lined up on the second row of the grid for Saturday’s sprint race.

On the opening lap of the sprint, Slater moved up to second after overtaking Martinius Stenshorne at Turn 4. Two laps later, Slater made a move on Joshua Dufek into Turn 1 and slotted into first. He led the race for a further eight laps until Red Bull junior Nikola Tsolov passed him on lap 11.

In the final laps of the race, Slater attempted several overtakes to take the position back but could not do so. Even though he did not claim victory, Slater’s ability to overtake and defend on track throughout the race made him appear as a seasoned driver, not a rookie in his first-ever F3 race start. 

Slater’s incredible weekend was cut short during Sunday’s feature when he was forced to retire on lap two after sustaining damage from an incident with Alessandro Giusti on the opening lap. Still, he left a big impression on F3 fans with his performance this weekend.

As for whether he would return for future rounds, Slater said that his ‘full focus’ was on his FR Europe campaign with Prema when asked about his racing plans in the post-sprint press conference. He will also compete in a partial season of GB3 with Hillspeed this year. 

3. Returning drivers deliver standout overtakes

Six rookies finished in the top 10 in both the sprint and the feature races, but several returning drivers proved that their experience still mattered around Bahrain. Third-year Mari Boya and second-year Tim Tramnitz produced outstanding drives, each making up a total of 17 positions across both races. Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov, also in his third season in F3, finished in the top five in the feature after winning Saturday’s sprint.

MP Motorsport’s Tramnitz scored his fifth F3 podium in the feature race after making up 10 positions during the race, many at Turn 4. The German driver had made up six positions across the opening two laps of the race to be seventh. On lap eight, he overtook Christian Ho for sixth heading into Turn 4, and on lap 12 he moved himself up into the top five when he pounced on Noah Strømsted at the same spot.

Tramnitz then set his sights on Trident’s Charlie Wurz and moved past him at Turn 4 on lap 17. Now within touching distance of the final podium position, Tramnitz closed the gap to Tuukka Taponen and slotted himself into third two laps later at Turn 4. With his double points haul this weekend from finishing sixth and third, Tramnitz now sits second in the championship standings with 30 points. 

After charging through from fourth and battling with Voisin to win the sprint, Tsolov produced another great performance during the feature race as he passed several drivers. The Bulgarian made up a net zero positions in the first eight laps before finally passing Ho for seventh into Turn 5 on lap nine. Four laps later on lap 13, he passed Strømsted into the first corner. His final overtake of the race came on lap 19, when he passed Wurz on the exit of Turn 1 for fifth. 

Tsolov now sits fifth in the standings with 23 points, just four points behind Strømsted and Voisin.

Mari Boya turned 21 on Sunday, and he had plenty to celebrate after the feature race. Starting 20th on the grid, the Spaniard had climbed up to 15th by the end of the first lap. His charge through the pack continued on lap six when he passed Rodin’s Roman Bilinski. Boya overtook Stenshorne for 13th on lap seven before passing Noel León on lap 10, Brando Badoer on lap 11 and Bruno Del Pino on lap 20. 

On the final lap of the race, Boya entered a three-wide battle out of Turn 1 with Wurz and Ho and got ahead of the former exiting Turn 2. He then overtook Ho heading out of Turn 4 to steal eighth place and complete an impressive drive on his birthday. 

Results and standings after round 2 in Bahrain

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Rafael Câmara, 1:49.214	Callum Voisin, +0.156s	Charlie Wurz, +0.404s
Sprint race (19 laps)	Nikola Tsolov, 39:51.263	Freddie Slater, +0.580s	Tuukka Taponen, +1.220s
Feature race (22 laps)	Rafael Câmara, 42:05.006	Callum Voisin, +6.211s	Tim Tramnitz, +7.884s

Standings	Drivers	Teams
P1	Rafael Câmara, 56	Trident, 93
P2	Tim Tramnitz, 30	MP Motorsport, 42
P3	Callum Voisin, 27	Campos Racing, 40
P4	Noah Strømsted, 27	Rodin Motorsport, 37
P5	Nikola Tsolov, 23	Van Amersfoort Racing, 29
P6	Martinius Stenshorne, 20	AIX Racing, 27
P7	Tuukka Taponen, 20	Hitech, 20
P8	Théophile Naël, 19	ART Grand Prix, 20
P9	Nikita Bedrin, 17	DAMS, 10
P10	Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, 13	Prema Racing, 2

Read our takeaways from the previous round here.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency