Freddie Slater took his first Formula 3 victory and with it the championship lead in the feature race at the Hungaroring, besting title rival Ugo Ugochukwu of Campos Racing and Brando Badoer of Rodin Motorsport. After the race, Feeder Series spoke with Trident’s Slater as well as Christian Ho, who scored his first points of the season in ninth.

By Michael McClure

At times, it seemed Freddie Slater’s 2026 season was shaping up to be something like Leonardo Fornaroli’s infamously winless title-winning 2024 campaign.

The Audi junior, FRegional Europe’s reigning champion was a regular points scorer and a consistent presence on the podium, not to mention a two-time polesitter. But when it came time to fight for victories, he always fell a little short. Outfoxed in Spielberg. Outmanoeuvred in Silverstone. Outdragged in Spa.

It took a little bit of luck for Slater to outclass everyone on Sunday in Budapest – opening-lap contact with Taponen hurt the MP Motorsport car more than his Trident – but his performance from there was a fine display of the composure and consistency he has possessed all season. His 1.484-second advantage over Ugochukwu after 24 laps gave him not only his maiden F3 win but also the championship lead he has fought to gain all season.

“Silverstone was pretty interesting with the late safety car,” Slater told Feeder Series in the post-race press conference. “Considering we were managing the tyres towards the end, we put ourselves in a really good position – just things didn’t go our way.

“Spa was one of the tracks where race pace wasn’t that good as a team. We struggled, and also with the three DRS zones, it made my life very hard to lead the race and finish in first.

“But this weekend, we had a really good qualifying. We maximised the potential there. I think we executed really well, and then we went into the race and just had a clean race, very calm out front, managing, relaxing, making sure I wasn’t oversliding the tyre, giving myself an opportunity to push in some areas of the race. Now we’ve finally got that first win, and I think it came down to good execution from the team overnight and then good execution of calmness, let’s say, in the race.”

Taponen won the pole on Friday and held the lead over Slater and Mattia Colnaghi on the run to Turn 1. Brando Badoer made up a position on Nicola Lacorte around the outside of the corner, then gained another on Colnaghi around the outside of Turn 2, which became the inside line for Turn 3. The Argentine stayed close, however, and got back ahead at the chicane a few corners later.

Behind them were Ugochukwu and Naël, who showed little restraint through the opening lap despite being teammates and championship aspirants. Each passed Lacorte in the first half of the lap – the former around the outside at Turn 5, the latter one turn later – before going side by side from Turns 8 through 10, where Ugochukwu got a stronger run and edged ahead down the inside through Turn 11.

Ugochukwu wasn’t the only title contender in the wars, Slater aimed to squeeze past Taponen approaching Turn 12 but got loose on the grass on the inside, tapping the MP Motorsport driver’s right-rear tyre and sacrificing his own endplate.

One corner later, a bigger incident befell the trio who crashed at the start of the sprint race yesterday. Gerrard Xie, running ninth, went wide at Turn 13, opening the door for Maciej Gładysz and Jin Nakamura to dive down the inside. Gładysz drifted into Nakamura in the middle as the DAMS driver closed back in, tipping both his and Xie’s car into the barriers. Those two retired on the spot as Nakamura pulled into pit lane with terminal damage.

The safety car deployed as a result of the collision was the lucky break Taponen needed. His right-rear tyre had begun to deflate after the contact with Slater, meaning he could pit without losing so much time to replace it. In a bizarre twist, however, Slater, Colnaghi and the rest of the field followed him in despite not being instructed to do so – a violation of article 40.11, which states that only pit stops to replace damaged parts or change to tyres for other weather conditions are permitted.

For the time being, however, Taponen emerged in sixth place as Slater had been gifted the lead at the restart on lap five. He would have to wait to stretch his legs, however, as 23rd-placed Salim Hanna stopped exiting Turn 12 behind the field, bringing out the virtual safety car. It was released as the leaders navigated the middle sector on lap seven.

Colnaghi, celebrating his 18th birthday, closed to within three tenths of Slater on lap nine, but he also faced pressure from behind from Badoer, who made an unsuccessful lunge down the inside at Turn 1 on lap 10. That was enough to hold him back and open the door for Ugo Ugochukwu to sweep past both him and Colnaghi around the outside of Turn 2. Colnaghi, passed later in the corner, was left vulnerable to Badoer as he exited Turn 3, the two swapping positions down the straight. Naël tried to make a late lunge into Turn 6 but did not succeed.

The top two in the championship were primed for a potentially epic duel – but two interruptions made them wait. The first came when Le ran wide at Turn 12 and stopped in the run-off area, bringing out the virtual safety car on lap 13. It was lifted on lap 14, but the full safety car came out on lap 15 after Yevan David’s lunge on Enzo Deligny and Fernando Barrichello ended in a three-way collision, leaving Deligny with terminal suspension damage and Barrichello stranded at Turn 1.

The safety car ended on lap 17, giving Slater seven laps to defend his lead and Ugochukwu seven laps to steal it. Whoever finished ahead would take the lead of the drivers’ championship.

The American, though, lost ground after the restart, falling to more than one second behind on the start-finish straight once DRS was enabled on lap 19.

He then reined in the gap again on the 20th lap and hounded the Briton for two laps, nearly drawing alongside exiting Turn 8 on lap 22. A snap of oversteer on the kerb put paid to that effort, and from there Slater inched away to win by 1.484 seconds.

Badoer and Colnaghi came home third and fourth respectively, their feelings after the race contrasting. Perhaps the most fiery display of emotion, however, came from behind via Naël and Taponen, who spent the race’s final seven laps locked in an intense battle that threatened to boil over into acrimony.

On the restart, Taponen swarmed all over Naël’s rear entering Turn 1 but was forced wide as he attempted to pull alongside. He tried again at Turn 2 on lap 21 and again got shoved to the edge of the track. His final proper attempt came as the cars rounded Turn 1 for the last time at racing speeds, and that time there was contact, with Taponen running wide and Naël sustaining what appeared to be a bent suspension. The Campos driver still finished the race fifth on track, but post-race time penalties for his two manoeuvres at Turn 1 dropped him to 20th overall and elevated Taponen to fifth.

Sprint race podium finisher Ernesto Rivera came home sixth after being cleared of a potential jump start, while James Wharton and Louis Sharp finished seventh and eighth for Prema Racing. They were both promoted after a 10-second post-race penalty was handed to Nicola Lacorte for dangerous driving while battling Alessandro Giusti on lap 14. The DAMS driver tumbled from eighth on track to 18th, one place behind where Giusti finished – the MP Motorsport driver himself dropping after running through the gravel.

As a result of Lacorte’s penalty, Christian Ho came home ninth for Rodin Motorsport, his first two points of his 2026 campaign. DAMS’ top scorer from 2025 admitted that his second F3 season has been a trying one between mistakes in qualifying, concurrent A-level exam preparations, and simply having ‘too much stuff in [his] head’.

“It’s not a nice place to be because I would have rather scored my first point in the first race of the year… but it’s nice to finally get a point on the board and help the team in the teams’ championship,” he said. “At least it shows that we’ve been making improvements every race. The last three races I’ve been fighting [for] the top 12 in quali. I’ve been unlucky at times, but at least there’s been some progress there.”

Following the penalties for Lacorte and Naël, 10th place went to Hiyu Yamakoshi, who started 30th and last after experiencing engine issues in qualifying. 

While 21st-placed Matteo De Palo’s 1:36.064 on lap eight was the overall fastest lap of the race – also set sans front wing endplate – the one that counted for points was Slater’s 1:36.481 on the final tour. With that, his advantage over Ugochukwu now rests at eight points, 130 to 122, with Campos Racing 73 points ahead of Trident, just as they were yesterday.

The results are provisional pending the outcome of a stewards’ decision about the violation of rule 40.11, for which all cars running on lap two bar Taponen were placed under investigation.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency