Rodin Motorsport’s Pedro Clerot secured his first Formula 3 victory in the first feature race in Madrid, finishing ahead of Taito Kato and Tuukka Taponen after a pile-up on the opening lap eliminated a quarter of the field. Feeder Series spoke to Clerot about the emotions he experienced on the podium after a difficult weekend in Monza.

By Tori Turner

The first feature race began with a dramatic multi-car incident that brought out a red flag. A subsequent safety car was triggered by a spin on lap nine for Freddie Slater, the points leader entering the race.

None of those interruptions, however, fazed Clerot, who controlled both restarts and led every lap to take his maiden victory in F3. 

“We knew it was going to be all about the start, and I felt I had already a really good launch on the formation lap, so I already told my engineer we were going to keep everything the same,” Clerot said in the post-race press conference. “Then, lights went out and I had a really good launch and no wheel spin. I was already side by side with Taito going into T1; it was just about making the corner. After that, it was a bit tricky with the red flag, doing two safety car restarts, trying to rebuild the gap that I had before the safety car, but we were absolutely flying.”

Behind the podium finishers, Ugo Ugochukwu’s fourth-place finish added 12 points to his total, bringing him level on points with Slater and ahead on countback before the final race of the season tomorrow morning. The championship will go to the driver who scores more points in tomorrow’s second feature race. If neither driver scores, Ugochukwu will become champion on countback; both drivers have one feature race win each, but Ugochukwu also has one sprint race victory.

Campos Racing’s Ugochukwu starts tomorrow’s race from the front row in second, while Trident’s Slater starts eighth.

While that duel will go down to the wire, the teams’ title has already been decided. With a total of 314 points, Campos clinched their second consecutive teams’ championship after all three drivers scored in the feature race. To add insult to injury, Trident failed to add to their total of 213 points, with ART Grand Prix now only 36 points behind in third.

When the 19-lap contest began, Kato took to the outside line around Turn 1 as Clerot went down the inside, snatching first place into the braking zone. Any hopes of breaking clear, however, were dashed when chaos ensued in the battle for fifth a few corners later. Behind a slow-exiting Alessandro Giusti, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Bruno Del Pino and Enzo Deligny came together on the run to Turn 7. Both cars spun into the centre of the circuit before ending up in the barriers, slowing the oncoming cars.

In the concertina effect that ensued, Maciej Gładysz flew over Fionn McLaughlin’s car, sliding against the fencing before landing without a front wing and several suspension elements. José Garfias was spun across the track and hit by Noah Strømsted, while behind the blockage, Fernando Barrichello ploughed into the rear of  Michael Shin’s car. Of that group, only Strømsted continued in the race, albeit after a front wing change.

Slater avoided the multiple incidents and found a gap through the middle to squeeze through unharmed. The incident moved him up to 15th, only one position higher than where he started in 16th.

The race was red flagged almost instantly for a clean-up period that lasted 30 minutes. The action resumed at 18:35 local time with a rolling start featuring 21 cars, lined up in the order before the red flag rather than the starting grid.

On the restart on lap three, Clerot remained in first place and swiftly broke clear of Kato’s DRS range. There was no change in position in the top 10 from lap three to lap eight as a DRS train formed from Ugochukwu in fourth to Strømsted in 17th, beginning a procession reminiscent of the earlier sprint race.

On lap seven, Slater ran wide at the first chicane, and Kanato Le swiftly began pressuring him for 15th. The Briton temporarily fell outside of Yamakoshi’s DRS range but got within a second again by the start of lap eight.

James Wharton moved up to 10th later that lap by passing Matteo De Palo on the run to Turn 5, with Yevan David also gaining a spot as De Palo bounced over the inside kerb at Turn 5A.

Lap nine brought perhaps the race’s biggest twist, in consequence if not in spectacle. Slater spun at Turn 19 while chasing Yamakoshi and whacked the rear of his car on the barrier, ending his race prematurely. Title rival Ugochukwu was simultaneously having to defend against Jin Nakamura, with the Japanese driver cutting across the chicane to get ahead but relinquishing fourth place right before the safety car was deployed.

Racing resumed at the end of lap 11, with Clerot producing another clean restart ahead of the pack. Once more, there was no change in the top 10, and a DRS train formed again from Nakamura in fifth to Lacorte in 20th upon its activation on lap 13.

Drivers built gaps throughout the pack from there, with the most dramatic moment being a battle for eighth between teammates Théophile Naël and Ernesto Rivera on the final lap. Rivera locked up heading into Turn 5, giving Naël no choice but to cut across the chicane to avoid contact with his teammate. Both drivers remained in their positions.

Out front, Clerot’s pace was never in doubt. The Brazilian crossed the finish line 1.341 seconds ahead of Kato to become the record 14th different winner of the 2026 season. On the top step of the podium, he soaked in the atmosphere and shed tears over his victory.

“As a Brazilian, we are very emotional people,” Clerot told Feeder Series. “I get this comment quite often that you show a lot of emotion.

“With all of the work we put in this year, we had really tough moments this year that were completely out of our control. It’s really difficult once you go through moments like that because you didn’t do nothing wrong, but still the result is not there.

“Monza was a really harsh weekend on us, but I kept my head high. I understood those things were not in my control, not on my side and what I could control I did very well.

“Hearing the Brazilian anthem, all the history Brazilians have in this championship, I’m just very happy to add my name on the list of winners. Seeing Rafa [Câmara, 2025 champion] and Gabi [Bortoleto, 2023 champion] go through the rankings and demonstrate really good results, I’m just really very happy to be putting my name up there together with theirs.

“It’s just an amazing feeling. The team deserves it so much. Seeing my mum and my sister here with me, my mum was saying, ‘Oh, I had a feeling I had to stay for this weekend.’ She was going to go back to Brazil. My dad flew back after Monza, so I spoke to him a little bit before the podium.”

Kato held on to second to score his fourth podium of the season, though even getting there proved an achievement. In the press conference, Kato revealed that he had ‘a little bit of issues on [his] car before the start and formation lap’. The issues were eventually rectified, and a post-race investigation into Kato for a failure to engage the start set-up procedure properly yielded no further action after the stewards determined that the problem lay with his car.

“I was able to start the race and this is a massive thanks to the team, but I was a bit scared in my car because I wasn’t starting the engine before 20 or 25 seconds,” Kato said. “Then there was a bit of frustration and it’s always difficult to manage with myself after this kind of situation, but I was able to stay focused and then manage it with a P2.”

Sunday polesitter Taponen finished third and set the fastest lap of the race, a 1:51.762 on lap 18. Ugochukwu started and finished fourth ahead of Nakamura in fifth and Giusti in sixth. After scoring his maiden podium in the sprint race, Prema Racing’s Alex Powell finished seventh.

Campos teammates Rivera and Naël finished eighth and ninth to help the Valencian outfit secure their teams’ title, with Prema’s Wharton taking the final points-paying position after an investigation into his overtake on De Palo warranted no penalty.

While this morning’s sprint race was the third time this season that all entered cars were classified at the flag, the feature race brought the highest number of retirements in a race all season with eight. With 20 cars taking the chequered flag, the race also had the lowest number of drivers classified in the results since the rebranded F3 launched in 2019 and the second-lowest number of finishers behind race one at Le Castellet in 2019, which 19 drivers finished.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency