James Wharton went back to winning ways in the Formula 3 sprint race in Barcelona. The Australian driver, who had picked up an injury in his home race weekend three months ago following a crash in the sprint, excelled on Spanish soil to take his second win in the series ahead of Freddie Slater and Gerrard Xie. Feeder Series spoke to the podium finishers about their efforts after the race.

By Daniele Spadi

Wharton had a compromised start to his second full-time F3 season. A heavy crash with Prema Racing teammate Louis Sharp during the opening sprint of the year in Melbourne, his home city, left him medically unfit to start the following day’s feature race.

Though it took Wharton several weeks to recover from the collapsed lung he sustained, he still needed to return to his peak physical shape. Thankfully for him, the cancellation of the second round of the season in Bahrain, originally scheduled for 10–12 April, gave him more time to heal.

After coming back for in-season testing at the Red Bull Ring and surviving a challenging weekend in Monaco, he was in even better shape in Spain, where an 11th-place finish in qualifying enabled him to line up second on the starting grid for the sprint.

Drama occurred even before the start of the race. From eighth on the grid, Taito Kato failed to start his car for the formation lap, and the Japanese driver was wheeled off the grid by the marshals and into the pit lane. Mattia Colnaghi joined him at the end of the formation lap.

Though Wharton tried to take the lead at the start, polesitter Xie was able to keep first place after the first chicane. This left Wharton vulnerable on the run up to Turn 4, which aided Slater on his quest to take second – a move he completed on the inside of Turn 5.

After the first two laps, however, Wharton seemed to have the upper hand. The Australian first moved up to second at the start of lap three thanks to a gutsy move on Slater on the inside of Turn 1. He then took the lead with a similar move two laps later, as Xie slotted into second behind him.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Prema, however, as Wharton’s teammate José Garfias stopped after what seemed to be a spin on lap three at the exit of Turn 12. He pitted and fell nearly a lap down, while Colnaghi simultaneously entered the pits once more, this time to retire his car.

Mixed fortunes also marked Campos Racing’s race. As Ugochukwu, who started 11th, moved up to seventh, Ernesto Rivera suffered technical issues at the end of lap four. He slowed down through no fault of his own on the exit of the final corner, and Rodin Motorsport’s Brando Badoer was unable to avoid him, nicking the rear of the Mexican’s car with his front wing.

On lap seven, Slater used DRS to dive up the inside of Xie into Turn 1, thus taking second position from the DAMS driver. This overtake proved to be perfectly timed, as the virtual safety car period was called seconds later to let the marshals recover Rivera’s stricken car in the final sector. The VSC then became a full-fledged safety car a lap later.

Slater tried to be opportunistic at the restart in an effort to take the lead, though Wharton was quick to defend the inside line into the opening chicane. Théophile Naël was the only driver inside the top 10 to make a move, climbing to ninth ahead of Badoer at the first corner.

On lap 13, Ugochukwu lined up a move on Deligny to take sixth, but as he tried to go around the outside of Turn 3, the championship leader lost grip and spun out of the race, beaching his car in the gravel trap. This triggered a second safety car, which stayed on track until the end of lap 16.

This time, Wharton had a better restart, keeping Slater at bay with relative ease. Slater’s teammate Matteo De Palo, on the other hand, was left facing the wrong way at Turn 1 following contact with Rodin Motorsport’s Pedro Clerot.

As Wharton broke clear of Slater ahead of the 21st and final lap, the Briton had to defend from Xie throughout the final lap. The Chinese driver had a look around the outside of Turn 1, but Slater cut him off. This compromised Xie’s exit and gave Tuukka Taponen a chance on the outside of Turn 3, though the Finn was left little to no room and could not make the move stick. The stewards noted the incident after the race.

Up front, Prema were back to winning ways, with Wharton taking a comfortable second career win in F3 after he triumphed in the sprint at the Red Bull Ring last year. This also marks the Italian team’s first win since the penultimate round of the 2024 season, when Ferrari Academy driver Dino Beganovic stood on the top step of the podium in Spa-Francorchamps for winning the sprint.

The victory was Wharton’s fourth at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, all taken with Prema, after his previous success in the 2023 Euro 4 season and his double victory in FRegional Europe the year after.  

“Going into Barcelona, I’m always very confident after the previous results I’ve had here,” he told Feeder Series. “This is a track where the driver makes a big difference, because we’ve all driven here so many times that the margins are so small. It’s one of the tracks I’m very comfortable with, and as a driver, when you feel comfortable on a track, it just makes life a lot easier.”

Slater had to settle for second, though the Trident driver will be pleased with being tied with Ugochukwu at the top of the drivers’ standings with 43 points. The Briton is also a previous race winner here, having taken two consecutive victories in his title-winning Italian F4 campaign for Prema in 2024 – on the same weekend that stablemate Wharton clinched both race wins in FR Europe. 

“[Barcelona] is one of the more historic tracks,” he explained to Feeder Series. “Everybody knows it; everybody’s done a lot of laps here. It’s very tricky in the race. We saw the degradation was a lot. As a driver, because I’ve been here obviously throughout my career in junior categories, it means I have a bit more knowledge of when things are happening throughout the race.”

This was also the first race of the season held on a track where Slater had raced previously.  “It’s nice to get to a track now that I actually knew, not like Monaco and Melbourne,” he added. “It’s enjoyable to drive around here and especially experience the degradation in the race.”

Third place went to Xie, with the 19-year-old taking his second consecutive sprint podium after his Monaco win. Though Taponen was close to scoring his first podium since last year’s feature race at the Hungaroring, he ultimately finished fourth, nonetheless clinching his first points of the season.

After swapping places in the opening laps, Enzo Deligny got back in front of Bruno Del Pino on the final lap, and with Hiyu Yamakoshi right behind them, the three Van Amersfoort Racing teammates occupied positions five through seven. It is only the second time all three Van Amersfoort cars have scored, the other curiously being the Barcelona sprint last year.

Tomorrow’s polesitter Naël clinched crucial points for the championship fight as he crossed the line in eighth. Sharp also contributed to Prema’s improved showing on Saturday with ninth place, with Noah Strømsted rounding out the top 10.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency