Théophile Naël was once again the class of the field in qualifying, taking his third consecutive pole position of the 2026 Formula 3 season in Barcelona. Campos Racing teammate and points leader Ugo Ugochukwu had to settle for second, with Hiyu Yamakoshi taking a career-best third. Feeder Series spoke to Naël and Yamakoshi in today’s session about their qualifying efforts.

By Daniele Spadi

Campos Racing came into qualifying as the absolute favourites after having secured the first three spots earlier today in practice, as Naël topped the standings ahead of teammates Ugochukwu and Ernesto Rivera.

That pace was shown early on in qualifying too. Though Naël jumped to the top with a 1:29.384 on his first competitive lap, Ugochukwu swiftly took matters into his own hands, setting a 1:28.707 with 22:48 remaining to go 0.491s clear of the rest of the field.

Taito Kato was second for ART Grand Prix after the first runs, with Enzo Deligny in third, but the Frenchman then lost his lap because of a track limits violation, tumbling down to 29th. That proved to be an issue throughout the entire session, with Tuukka Taponen, Hiyu Yamakoshi and Alessandro Giusti also losing their quickest laps after the first runs for the same reason.

Rivera was therefore promoted to third, with Monaco feature race winner Brando Badoer right behind him in fourth. Naël slotted into fifth.

Traffic became a glaring issue from the second runs, with drivers even going side by side at the exit of the pit lane to secure a better track position. That, combined with the fact that drivers needed at least two build-up laps to get the tyres in the right temperature window, created some tense moments throughout.

This didn’t stop Naël from showing off his one-lap prowess once more. The Frenchman set a 1:28.263 with 11:22 remaining to top the timesheets. Ugochukwu fell short of his teammate’s efforts by just 0.039s, with Badoer and Del Pino improving to third and fourth respectively.

Meanwhile, Audi junior Freddie Slater struggled to get up to speed. After finishing free practice down in 22nd, the Briton rose from 16th to 10th between the first two runs.

Chaos ensued in the final run of qualifying. Maciej Gładysz dipped a wheel in the grass in an effort to pass the traffic into Turn 12, while Michael Shin broke his front wing against the straight mode board on the outside of Turn 9.

Many drivers failed to improve on their final runs, including the three Campos Racing teammates as well as both Badoer and Del Pino. This enabled Naël to take a third consecutive pole position in the series, a feat only reigning champion Rafael Câmara and 2020 third-place finisher Logan Sargeant had previously achieved.

Despite his untouchable form in qualifying, the Frenchman is still looking for his maiden triumph in the series. Last season, he finished second at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with Van Amersfoort Racing, while in 2023, he clinched the Spanish F4 title at the track.

“The motivation is high,” he told Feeder Series when asked about how losing victory in Monaco has fuelled him for this weekend.

“I’m still chasing my first victory in FIA Formula 3, so I hope I can have it this weekend, especially in Barcelona. I really enjoy the track; it’s special for me to be racing here. But first of all, we have to make a clean race tomorrow and learn as much as possible for the feature race.”

Ugochukwu slotted into second, with the two Campos Racing teammates set to start the feature race from the front row of the grid just as they did in Melbourne. They will begin the sprint race from 11th and 12th.

Among the few who improved on their final runs, Van Amersfoort’s Hiyu Yamakoshi put in a standout effort to clinch third. This puts the Japanese rookie in an excellent position to make up the ground he lost in the championship after being disqualified from sprint race victory in Monaco.

“I saw the post on all the social media that I got disqualified [from the Monaco sprint],” Yamakoshi recalled when speaking to Feeder Series. “But all my fans, all the Japanese people strongly support me. When I saw those comments, [it was] for me really helpful, even for the motivation and for momentum as well.”

The 19-year-old will line up third on the grid on Sunday, and with a long run into Turn 1, his expectations are high for the feature race.

“The thing about motivation is, I want the trophy. I want to be back to the podium, and I want to be back on the top of the podium. That’s the main thing for me this week,” he added.

Monaco feature race winner Badoer secured fourth, continuing his current run of form. Kato also went quicker on his final lap as he took fifth, just ahead of Del Pino.

Rivera and Deligny finished seventh and eighth respectively, while Taponen delivered a compelling lap to secure ninth spot. In the end, Slater could not go past 10th in what was a challenging qualifying session for Trident as a whole, with Matteo De Palo and Noah Strømsted finishing down in 19th and 22nd respectively.

Rounding out the top 12 were James Wharton and Gerrard Xie. The two will start tomorrow’s sprint from the front row of the grid, as the former looks for his maiden points this season while the latter hopes to win races in back-to-back rounds after his Monaco success last Saturday. In his first F3 qualifying, Mexico’s Ricardo Escotto – who steps in for the injured Brad Benavides at AIX – finished down in 29th, ahead of only Hitech’s Jin Nakamura.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency