Ivan Domingues took his maiden single-seater race win in the Barcelona Formula 3 sprint race from sixth on the grid as Van Amersfoort Racing took home their first 1-2 in the series with Santiago Ramos finishing in second. Nikola Tsolov rounded out the podium, closing in on the lead of the drivers’ standings.

By Daniele Spadi

Domingues, who has raced with Van Amersfoort since 2023, had yet to score points in his rookie F3 season before his breakthrough triumph Saturday morning. His victory on Spanish soil marks the team’s third win of 2025 as well as their first 1-2 finish in F3, a feat the Dutch outfit had never achieved since they joined the series back in 2022.

“It’s a very good result for the team,” Domingues told Feeder Series in the press conference after his win. “I’m also happy for myself, happy for Santi.”

The Portuguese driver lined up sixth on the grid but took advantage of an eventful race start to inherit the lead of the race three corners in.

As polesitter Roman Bilinski tried to retain first entering Turn 1, Tim Tramnitz darted to the outside, while Martinius Stenshorne made a last-second lunge up the inside of the Polish driver.

Though the Norwegian seemed to have made the move stick, he touched Tramnitz in the following corner as the Red Bull junior lunged to take the inside line. Stenshorne then collected Bilinski in the gravel trap at Turn 2, while Tramnitz pulled over after sustaining a broken front-right suspension. All three were forced to retire.

Behind them, Tuukka Taponen struggled off the line from fourth on the grid and was collected by feature race polesitter Rafael Câmara, who also retired with damage. The safety car was therefore called out on track and remained there until the end of lap five.

With the top four starters all out of the race, many drivers slingshotted their way up the order. Domingues earned the lead of the race from sixth on the grid, with Noah Strømsted jumping from fifth to second and Laurens van Hoepen from 10th to third behind him. Championship hopeful Nikola Tsolov also recovered from 11th to fifth, while Bruno Del Pino benefitted the most from the chaos to gain 11 positions and rise to ninth.

As green-flag racing resumed on lap six, Domingues kept the race lead, but he had to work hard to stay in front of Strømsted, who had a look into Turn 1 on lap 8. The VAR driver fended him off and found his rhythm over the next few laps, bringing the gap over his main rival to 1.7s five laps later.

Behind them, Van Hoepen lost places to Santiago Ramos at Turn 1 on lap nine and Tsolov four laps later at the same spot. Tsolov’s Campos Racing teammates made inroads on the field in the second half of the race, with last year’s sprint winner Mari Boya notably rising from 13th at the restart to eighth by the start of lap 17.

Strømsted had bridged the gap to Domingues until that point in preparation for a last-gasp attack, but he unexpectedly slowed down with just four laps to go and pulled into pit lane to retire. This promoted Ramos to second and Tsolov to third while also giving Domingues the breathing room he sought.

From that moment, the Portuguese driver never looked back, taking home his maiden single-seater race win on his 95th attempt while bringing Portugal to the top step of the podium for the first time in the current iteration of F3. 

Thanks to Ramos’ second-place finish, Van Amersfoort Racing also secured their first 1-2 since they joined the series back in 2022. Théophile Naël’s fifth-place finish made it the first time the team scored points with all three cars.

“The boys deserve it as well. There is a very good team spirit inside the team. Also Santi, that has a bit more experience, has been helping me a bit in some areas where I need to get the experience… Let’s hope we can re-do this.”

F3 second-year Ramos, meanwhile, clinched his third podium of the season and jumped to sixth in the drivers’ championship on 45 points. The Mexican is now 34 points off of Câmara, while Van Amersfoort have moved up to fifth in the teams’ standings on 80 points, 66 behind leaders Trident, as the season nears its halfway point.

“Obviously at the end [of the day] we’re fighting for the drivers’ championship, but also for the teams’ championship,” Ramos explained to Feeder Series. “We knew that we had the potential – we just had to make sure to put everything together during the weekends. I think this is actually the first weekend we can put the three cars together in the top 12, so this is good for the team as well.”

Tsolov rounded out the podium and moved to just 10 points behind Câmara in the standings.

Behind Van Hoepen and Naël, Alessandro Giusti was the best MP Motorsport driver at the finish line in sixth, while home hero Boya recovered to finish seventh from 15th on the grid. James Wharton became the 25th driver to score points this season by finishing eighth ahead of Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, whose ninth-place finish gave Campos their first triple points finish of the season. Noel León was 10th, adding an additional point to Prema Racing’s tally.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency