Red Bull junior Nikola Tsolov took his second consecutive Formula 3 pole position and third of the season at Silverstone ahead of Prema’s Ugo Ugochukwu and title rival Rafael Câmara. Feeder Series spoke to Tsolov about the momentum he carried into qualifying and also talked to Christian Ho, who will start on the front row for Saturday’s sprint race.

By Kaylene Lau 

The Bulgarian had already topped F3’s practice session Friday morning with a lap time of 1:45.847, 0.289 seconds ahead of second-placed Charlie Wurz. Tim Tramnitz, who is second in the standings, rounded out the top three, two thousandths behind Wurz. 

Trident teammates Câmara and Noah Strømsted put the first push laps on the board six and a half minutes into the qualifying session with a 1:46.318 and 1:46.522 respectively. Ugochukwu also showed great pace early on, setting a time of 1:46.341 shortly after to split the Trident duo. Tramnitz then jumped to the top of the times eight minutes into the session with a 1:45.999. 

Just a few seconds later, Tsolov jumped to the top of the times with a 1:45.655, setting overall best times in all three sectors. Tsolov’s Campos Racing teammate Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak set a time of 1:46.050 that slotted him into third. 

Drivers also struggled with track limits, with Laurens van Hoepen, Nicola Lacorte, Ivan Domingues and Noel León getting their first lap times deleted for exceeding them. Domingues only set a representative lap time with four minutes left on the clock. 

The majority of the drivers headed to pit lane with 19 minutes left, though a handful stayed out. Martinus Stenshorne, who inherited the feature race win last weekend, set a 1:46.572 on his second push lap during this gap to go 11th. Spielberg front-row starter Brad Benavides of AIX Racing then slotted into fourth with a 1:46.431 before Roman Bilinski of Rodin Motorsport usurped him by 0.018s.

Most cars were back out on track with 12 minutes remaining, and Câmara jumped to the top with a 1:45.176, nearly half a second faster than Tsolov’s best. 

All drivers had headed out of the pits for their final flying laps with six minutes to go. At that moment, Wurz, who had been 20th, jumped to fourth with a 1:45.777 before Van Amersfoort Racing’s Théophile Naël jumped to second with a 1:45.522. 

With a minute remaining, Câmara was still on top, but Tsolov had something to say about it. The Red Bull junior’s final flying lap, set with 33 seconds remaining, secured him his second consecutive pole position. His 1:45.043 was only 0.023s ahead of second-placed Ugochukwu’s best, the tightest pole position margin in an F3 qualifying session since the 2024 Melbourne round.

Tsolov said his maiden pole position in Monaco six weeks ago set him up for success for the qualifying sessions after.

“We had a good weekend there, a good quali, and I think that kind of set the rhythm,” he told Feeder Series. 

“For me, this is the thing. Obviously you do it once and then it gets easier, or you get better at it, so I look at it that way – that once you’re up there, it’s easier to keep the momentum than trying to chase for your first pole position.” 

A setup change also aided Tsolov’s performance, he said.

“We found something on the warmup since [the] last set in Barcelona until now, which has been helping us a lot,” Tsolov added. “It seems like we weren’t switching the tyres on properly. They felt quite sensitive compared to last year.”

Though he missed out on pole, Ugochukwu still had his best qualifying session yet to start on the front row on Sunday for the first time and achieve reigning teams’ champions Prema’s first top-three qualifying result in 2025. Câmara, a four-time polesitter already this season, did not improve on his final attempt and had to settle for third. 

Mari Boya backed up his teammate’s pace with fourth, with Tramnitz qualifying fifth. Wurz’s earlier effort put him sixth, with Stenshorne seventh. ART’s Van Hoepen qualified eighth ahead of Naël as Prema’s León rounded out the top 10.

Campos’ Inthraphuvasak qualified in 12th to ensure a Campos car starts from pole for both races. DAMS’ Christian Ho in 11th will start alongside him for Saturday’s sprint race, putting him in prime position for his first points since Bahrain. 

“It’s been quite a tough last few rounds after Bahrain,” Ho told Feeder Series in the paddock. “We’ve been quite slow, so a result like this is not too bad. For sure I should’ve been top five today. I made a mistake on my side, so for that, I apologise to the team. 

“It’s a step forward, but in the end the main thing is just learning the track because I’ve not been here before. To be honest it wasn’t a bad session. [I’m] not where I want to be because I want to be at the front fighting, but it’s definitely a step forward.”

Additional reporting by Martin Lloyd

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency