Rafael Câmara became the 2025 Formula 3 drivers’ champion with a round to spare, taking the title in style at the Hungaroring thanks to his fourth feature race win of the season. In wet conditions, the Brazilian converted his fifth pole of the season into victory ahead of Mari Boya and Tuukka Taponen.

By Daniele Spadi

Ahead of the ninth feature race of the season at the Hungaroring, polesitter Câmara was already in prime position to take the drivers’ crown. With a 33-point advantage entering the race and only 39 on offer in the final round at Monza, Câmara would secure the F3 title with a win on Sunday regardless of what his rivals did.

He did just that in dominant style with yet another lights-to-flag victory, becoming the series’ seventh champion under its current identity and its first to wrap up the title with a round to spare. 

Because of the slippery conditions, race direction opted for a rolling start, leaving Câmara to lead the field without the uncertainty of having to get the perfect getaway off the grid. The Trident driver made the most of it, creating a 1.3-second gap over Boya on the opening lap.

His fight got slightly easier after one of his rivals hit trouble on lap one. Tim Tramnitz, who had to finish in front of Câmara to keep his championship hopes alive, spun entering Turn 7 while trying to overtake Santiago Ramos and dropped to 24th.

On lap two, Ugo Ugochukwu started climbing back up the field, moving up to fifth thanks to a fine overtake on Théophile Naël around the outside of Turn 2. Up front, Boya, having closed the gap to Câmara, tried a move up the inside at the same turn two laps later with the aid of DRS.

Not only did Câmara retain the lead, however, but he did so for the next three laps as the safety car was called out on track seconds later. Contact into Turn 13 between Brad Benavides and Roman Bilinski sent the former spinning into the wall and facing the wrong way.

Green-flag racing resumed on lap seven, with Câmara and Boya once again nailing the restart. Ugochukwu put Gerrard Xie under pressure throughout the first sector, and as the latter went wide into Turn 4, the former slipped up the inside. The Chinese driver tried to keep fourth position at the following corner but lost control of his car, hitting Ugochukwu in the process. Xie received a 10-second penalty for the incident, which caused both drivers to retire on the spot and brought out the safety car once again.

The incident promoted Naël to fifth, while Noah Strømsted and yesterday’s sprint winner Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak entered the top 10. Behind them, Nikola Tsolov, Câmara’s main rival in the championship standings entering the race, was elevated to 13th from 21st on the grid.

The second restart came on lap 11, and as Câmara retained the race lead, Tsolov continued his climb through the field. He overtook three cars in one lap to climb up to 10th while yesterday’s fourth-place finisher James Hedley, whom the Campos Racing driver passed into Turn 2, was tagged into a spin by Noel León at Turn 13.

The next lap, Tsolov took ninth away from Strømsted, who seemed to be struggling for pace and dropped to 13th on lap 13. That lap, Tsolov took eighth from Wharton, and he quickly dispatched both Alessandro Giusti and Ugochukwu on lap 14 to reach sixth position.

On lap 15, the race started running to time, and Câmara crossed the start-finish line at the end of the lap with 12 minutes and 38 seconds left on the clock. The fight for the win was far from over, though, as Boya had closed the gap to less than a second.

With the track slowly drying up, teams started to think about switching to slick tyres. Hitech’s Martinius Stenshorne and MP Motorsport’s Bruno Del Pino tried their luck with 10 minutes to go, but they soon discovered that the surface was too damp for their slicks to enter the right temperature window.

With three minutes to go, the fight for the final spot on the podium ignited as Charlie Wurz dove up the inside of Taponen into Turn 1. The Finn kept the Trident driver behind then and after he attacked at Turn 5 too. Their battling helped both Naël and Tsolov close in on them as well, but all drivers ultimately held position.

Though Boya kept pressuring Câmara, the Brazilian started increasing the gap over his rival in the final three laps, beginning by taking the fastest lap of the race on lap 21. After that point, the Spaniard had no time to respond. A flawless final lap from Câmara ensured he took not only a record fourth feature race win of the season but the drivers’ championship too.

Behind, Boya had to settle for second place, crossing the finish line 1.937s behind Câmara. Still, his fourth podium in the last six races, as well as a bonus point for setting the fastest lap of those within the top 10, propelled him to second in the drivers’ championship by two points.

Third was Taponen, who took his first top-three finish in a feature race and stepped on an F3 podium for the first time since the sprint in Monaco. The Finn fended off the attacks of Wurz, who finished fourth ahead of Naël. Though Tsolov had to concede the championship fight, his inspired drive yielded sixth from 21st on the grid and ensured Campos have only a 19-point deficit to Trident in the teams’ championship, which only those two outfits can win.

Badoer took seventh for his third consecutive points finish this season, while Laurens van Hoepen came home in eighth. Giusti and Inthraphuvasak rounded out the top 10. Just outside the points-paying positions, Rodin Motorsport’s Louis Sharp came home a remarkable 11th from 28th on the grid, while early spinner Tramnitz recovered to 13th.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency