Jin Nakamura claimed his maiden Formula 3 victory in Spa’s sprint race, passing the Rodin Motorsport duo of Brando Badoer and Pedro Clerot in the opening third of the race as title contenders Freddie Slater and Ugo Ugochukwu tangled on the first lap. Feeder Series breaks down how everything unfolded and spoke to the Rodin drivers about the team’s record of producing strong results at the Belgian circuit.

By Tori Turner

Badoer remained in the lead off the line heading to the first corner as Colnaghi attempted to squeeze past Clerot down the inside but could not get past the Brazilian, giving Nakamura the chance to sweep around the outside of La Source with more momentum. The Hitech driver, penalised out of reverse-grid pole late yesterday evening after a chaotic qualifying, then passed Clerot around the outside of Les Combes.

“I got a really good start,” Nakamura said. “I overtook one car in T1, then I got a good tow into T5 and overtook Pedro. I just had so much pace.”

Just behind them, Ernesto Rivera, who lost two places on the Kemmel Straight, clipped the rear of Hiyu Yamakoshi’s car ahead, causing the Van Amersfoort Racing driver to spin out of sixth. Both were able to keep going, Yamakoshi having fallen to the back, but another frontrunner wasn’t so lucky. 

As Ugo Ugochukwu attempted to seal an overtake on Freddie Slater on the inside of Turn 6 for seventh, the Trident driver got a snap of oversteer and tangled wheels with the Campos Racing car. Slater went into the barriers, ending his race, while Ugochukwu limped back to the pits with right-rear suspension damage and emerged a lap down from the race leader in 29th after receiving repairs.

Slater’s stricken car triggered a safety car, which remained out on track until the end of lap three. On the restart lap, Nakamura made the move on Badoer heading down to Les Combes to take the lead of the race.

“I got quite a good restart when I left it, but apparently not good enough not to be overtaken by Jin, who had a good run with the tow and got me into T4,” Badoer said. “Then when I was second, I was also close to passing Jin back, but I didn’t have a good enough run to go for the move, so that was it.”

A battle for fourth emerged between Colnaghi and Taito Kato on lap five, with the ART Grand Prix driver looking around the outside of Les Combes both that lap and the subsequent one. The second time, Colnaghi pushed Kato to the edge of the track, giving the Japanese driver little option but to leave the track to prevent an incident. 

That battle left Kato vulnerable to Théophile Naël, who was now on the Japanese driver’s tail and eager to move up into the top five. That move came on lap seven along the Kemmel Straight. Meanwhile, Rivera cut across the track at Turn 5 in the same way Colnaghi had done whilst battling Taponen for seventh, only for the Finn to make the move stick at La Source on lap eight. 

Racing action was halted once more after Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi in 21st smashed into one of the polystyrene boards exiting the corner behind them, scattering debris across the track surface. A safety car was brought out later on lap eight to ensure the track could be cleaned safely. 

The race resumed at the end of lap 10, with Nakamura accelerating through the middle of the final chicane and surviving a snap of oversteer to lead the pack once more. This time, Badoer was unable to inch close enough down the Kemmel Straight to take the lead, while Kato went around the outside of Naël to snatch fifth away, but the Frenchman did not give up, with the two banging wheels at the Bus Stop chicane later on in the lap. 

With no change in the top 10 on the final lap, Nakamura cruised to victory, becoming the first Japanese driver to win a race since Ayumu Iwasa, who won the first race in Budapest in 2021. The Toyota junior ended up crossing the line 0.978s ahead of Badoer and also set the fastest lap eligible for points, a 2:07.218 on the 12th and final tour. Ugochukwu’s 2:07.041 on lap five was the fastest overall time.

Clerot claimed the final podium spot, having previously finished in the top three earlier on in the season in Monaco and Spielberg. The result marked Rodin Motorsport’s first-ever double podium finish in F3, increasing their tally of top-three finishes in 2026 to six, two more than they achieved throughout the whole of the 2025 season and their most ever in a single season in the current iteration of F3. 

“The team always works hard and works well to give me, Pedro and Christian the best possible car to do the best possible result,” Badoer told Feeder Series. “It works particularly well here, that part is true. The base is good and we just need to fine-tune everything to have a good run tomorrow as well.”

The team are no strangers to success at the circuit. They achieved their first victory in the series in 2024 when Callum Voisin took a lights-to-flag win in the feature race, while last year in F2, Alex Dunne stormed to pole position by more than four tenths and finished first on track before earning a post-race time penalty for failing to engage the car’s start-up procedure correctly. 

“This has historically been a very strong track for Rodin [in F3] and also in F2,” Clerot added. “Specifically what it is, I don’t know what to say, but I think we’ve been doing a good job also on the driving side. We were immediately very quick in free practice with the three cars. I was P3 until my lap got deleted, but we were still showing that lately we’ve been very fast in other tracks and able to fight at the front.

“Like Brando said, the team is working very hard, weekend in and weekend out, to give us the best possible car and strategy and everything for us. Everything clicked here, but we’ve been showing this already for quite some time, so I’m just happy to be converting this strong weekend for us into a double podium for the team.”

Colnaghi finished fourth ahead of Kato, who was able to stay ahead of Naël. The ART driver is, however, under investigation for an alleged start procedure infringement after team personnel were seen in the vicinity of the car as the 15-second signal was given. Taponen remained seventh having started the race in ninth. Rivera finished eighth and Giusti ninth, with Noah Strømsted making it up into the points-paying positions in 10th after starting 14th.

With neither Ugochukwu nor Slater scoring, the gap between the top two in the drivers’ standings remains provisionally 16 points. Slater is due to start the feature race from pole, while Ugochukwu is set to line up outside the top 12 for the first time this season after receiving two post-qualifying penalties.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency