The sixth round of the 2026 Formula 3 season at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps saw five different nations appear on the podium, with Japan’s Jin Nakamura taking the win in Saturday’s sprint and Mexico’s Ernesto Rivera clinching victory in the feature race. Feeder Series reveals the five things we learned from the past weekend at Spa-Francorchamps.

By Daniele Spadi

Slater was unstoppable on Friday, setting the fastest time in the sole practice session in the morning and backing that up with his second consecutive pole position in the afternoon. In the sprint race, Japan was returned to the top step of the podium by Jin Nakamura, who took his and Hitech’s first win of the season ahead of the Rodin Motorsport pair of Brando Badoer and Pedro Clerot. On Sunday, an inspired Ernesto Rivera captured his second victory of his campaign – and his first in a feature race – with Hiyu Yamakoshi and Slater rounding out the podium.

• Pre-weekend roundtable: Why F3 drivers arrive at Spa with reason for optimism
• Qualifying report and quotes: Slater takes back-to-back F3 poles as dangerous tow tactics mar Spa qualifying
• Sprint race report and quotes: Nakamura ‘just had so much pace’ en route to maiden F3 win at Spa
• Feature race report and quotes: Campos’ Rivera defeats Slater to storm to second F3 win in Spa feature

1. Mexico rejoices…

Rivera did not have the cleanest of starts to his rookie Formula 3 campaign. The Mexican had sustained a back injury ahead of the opening round of the season, which he had to miss as he went back to his home country to continue his healing process.

As he made his debut in Monaco, the Red Bull junior dusted off the rust easily, qualifying in the top five on one of the most demanding tracks on the calendar and taking his first points with fifth place in the feature race. Just three weeks later, he went on to take his maiden win in the series at the Red Bull Ring in the sprint.

In Belgium, Rivera qualified in fifth, albeit just an eighth of a second off the front row. In the feature race, his pace was undeniable – and after he overtook Slater for the lead on lap 12, he proved to be untouchable as he soared to his second win in the series and his first on a Sunday.

The 17-year-old has now gained six places in the drivers’ standings, shooting up to fifth in the standings with 56 points, just nine adrift from third. He has shown raw speed as well as terrific racecraft in the past three rounds, and if he continues to show these traits in the next three rounds, he will cement his place as one of the most impressive rookies this season.

2. …while Japan steals the show

If Mexico enjoyed a terrific Sunday, Japan was by far the best-performing nation throughout the entire weekend. The Land of the Rising Sun had not celebrated an F3 victory since Ayumu Iwasa took the winning spoils in Budapest back in 2021, but that changed on Saturday.

Jin Nakamura had already shown flashes of excellence this season, taking two top-five finishes – including his maiden podium in the series – at the Red Bull Ring. In Spa, the 20-year-old was in a league of his own in the sprint, overtaking both Badoer and Clerot to storm to his first victory from third on the grid. The Hitech driver scored points in the feature race as well, finishing in eighth place.

The Japanese flag featured on the podium on Sunday too, becoming the only one flown in both races this weekend. Hiyu Yamakoshi equalled his best-ever finish in the series by taking second in the feature race, just as he did in the Barcelona feature race; the Van Amersfoort driver, who had scored just 13 points since then, was finally able to return to the podium after a near-perfect drive on Sunday.

Taito Kato also enjoyed a positive weekend. The 18-year-old, part of the Honda Formula Dream Project, finished the sprint race fifth – where he started – and the feature race sixth from 12th on the grid. With those results plus a bonus point for setting the fastest lap in the latter, he earned 15 points throughout the weekend – a third of his total from this season and his biggest score since the season opener in Australia.

3. Argentina and Finland shine for MP Motorsport…

Argentina’s Mattia Colnaghi joined the 2026 F3 grid with high hopes. The 17-year-old from Monza, Italy, was coming off of two back-to-back championship-winning seasons, taking the Spanish F4 title in 2024 and the Eurocup-3 crown last year. The first half of his rookie F3 season, however, was far from ideal, as he took just a single point in the first five rounds, finishing 10th at Melbourne in the feature race.

Then things finally clicked in Spa-Francorchamps, a track where Colnaghi had finished second in both of last year’s Eurocup-3 races. The MP Motorsport driver qualified in sixth position and stayed out of trouble to finish fourth in both the sprint and the feature, missing out on the podium by just 0.474s on Sunday.

Finland also had reasons to smile as Colnaghi’s teammate Tuukka Taponen earned a double points finish in Spa – his second one in the past three race weekends. The 19-year-old, who returned to the F3 grid for a second season hoping to be a title contender, had a slow start to his sophomore campaign, failing to score points in the opening four races and finishing in the top 10 just three times in the first five rounds.

The MP Motorsport driver returned to the track where it all began for him. He made his F3 debut at Spa with ART Grand Prix in 2024, substituting for current F2 championship leader Nikola Tsolov. This time around, Taponen qualified in second, his best ever result in the series, and while he fell back during the feature race, he still bagged points across the weekend for finishing in seventh in both races.

4. …whereas the USA and France falter for Campos Racing

Though Rivera’s win in the feature race strengthened Campos Racing’s lead in the teams’ standings, it was not all smooth sailing for the Spanish outfit. Championship leader Ugo Ugochukwu and his teammate Théophile Naël, who had stolen the show across the opening rounds of the season, had an underwhelming weekend, scoring just five points between them in round six.

Ugochukwu, who had never scored fewer than 15 points in a race weekend this season, went scoreless at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. The American was among those who was penalised for the dangerous antics that went on in qualifying, and he thus lined up 10th for the sprint and 13th for the feature.

The 19-year-old from New York City collided with his rival Freddie Slater at Les Combes on the opening lap on Saturday, preventing either driver from scoring points in the sprint. The following day, Ugochukwu was fighting for the points until the closing stages, but as he dropped out of the top 10 on lap 11, he lost several places and dropped to 20th. Such a complicated weekend sees his lead in the drivers’ standings cut down to just a single point over Slater, who finished third in the feature after starting from pole.

Naël was at least able to secure points in the sprint, putting in  a solid drive from eighth on the grid to finish in sixth position and claim points for only the fifth time in a race this season.

The Frenchman, however, endured a tough day on Sunday. He started down in 14th after receiving a five-place grid penalty for driving slowly at the head of the queue in qualifying. As he tried to make amends throughout the opening lap, he hit the back of Kato’s ART Grand Prix, nicking his front wing in the process. He was forced to pit for a nose change, dropping him down the order, and while he ended up almost back in his original starting spot in 15th, he did little to capitalise on Ugochukwu’s tough day at the office.

5. An embarrassing show in qualifying – for all the world to see

Though some nations were happier than others after the on-track action at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps concluded, no one could smile after what went down on Friday afternoon during qualifying.

Formula 3 drivers have always relied heavily on the slipstream effect to extract the maximum potential out of their cars. When turning up to power-heavy circuits with long straights such as Spa, that peculiarity turns into a dangerous liability.

Drivers did everything in their power to avoid being at the head of the queue, as a lack of tow would mean losing speed and thus time both down the Kemmel straight and on the run up to the Bus Stop chicane. However, this scenario led drivers to slow down excessively or venture off track unnecessarily to try to optimise their track position – behaviour that did not meet the standards expected in a championship at the F3 level.

Ultimately, said antics culminated in a crash involving six drivers. Though the incident happened at low speeds as the pack crawled through the Fagnes left-hander, it was still as dangerous as any other incident – if not more given how bunched up the pack was.

Changes were made to the Monza qualifying format in 2024 to avoid these issues, with drivers split into two groups, mirroring the Monaco qualifying format. Still, the question of whether these changes should be implemented elsewhere – perhaps everywhere – lingers.

Results and standings after round 6 at Spa-Francorchamps

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Freddie Slater, 2:05.150	Tuukka Taponen, +0.251s	Hiyu Yamakoshi, +0.339s
Sprint race (12 laps)	Jin Nakamura, 31:08.854	Brando Badoer, +0.978s	Pedro Clerot, +1.459s
Feature race (15 laps)	Ernesto Rivera, 34:44.732	Hiyu Yamakoshi, +1.685s	Freddie Slater, +4.453s

Standings	Drivers	Teams
P1	Ugo Ugochukwu, 104	Campos Racing, 225
P2	Freddie Slater, 103	Trident, 169
P3	Théophile Naël, 65	Van Amersfoort Racing, 131
P4	Noah Strømsted, 59	ART Grand Prix, 110
P5	Ernesto Rivera, 56	Rodin Motorsport, 98
P6	Maciej Gładysz, 54	MP Motorsport, 65
P7	Hiyu Yamakoshi, 54	Hitech, 41
P8	Brando Badoer, 50	Prema Racing, 37
P9	Bruno Del Pino, 49	DAMS, 22
P10	Pedro Clerot, 48	AIX Racing, 21

Read our takeaways from the previous round here.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency