 Credit: Alex Caparros Red Bull junior driver and Bulgarian Nikola Tsolov was the star of the show as he topped day 2 of the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship pre-season testing, in Barcelona on Thursday. Tsolov dominated the on-track action of Thursday with him topping both of the sessions on Thursday, in the morning and the evening. The best time set by Tsolov was in the morning session, despite him finishing top of both the morning and afternoon sessions. This would be the second day of a three-day pre-season testing camp at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya with there being eagerness from the drivers and teams to get the best lap times and data possible to prepare them best for the regular racing season. A 1:26.618 for Tsolov would see him fastest of the day overall for the Campos Racing team. Tsolov would finish top of the time sheets ahead of ART Grand Prix rookie Tuukka Taponen who was second, while the Trident of Noah Stromsted completed the top three. The 30 drivers participating in the pre-season testing, with the 10 teams involved, would be an opportunity for the drivers and teams to build up a partnership which would prepare them for challenging for top results, throughout the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship. How Day 2 of the pre-season testing in Barcelona unfolded in the 2025 FIA Formula 3 ChampionshipThursday morning would see a return to track action for the brand new era of Formula 3 machinery after the opening day of pre-season testing on Wednesday, which was the first day of on-track action for the drivers in Formula 3 throughout 2025. On Wednesday, it was Noel Leon with Prema who set the fastest time across the day, which would be a 1:27.711. It would be a lap time that would also see him top the afternoon session too ahead of MP Motorsport's Tim Tramnitz and Rodin's Louis Sharp, who would be second and third respectively in the overall classification. Topping the morning session would be Rodin Motorsport's Callum Voisin, with a 1:27.959 in an all-Rodin top three with Roman Bilinski in second and Sharp would be in third. It was a busy day 1 with 2054 laps completed and it was time for attention to be turned to day 2.
The first three-hour testing session of the day would begin on Thursday morning with the drivers and teams looking to develop their data further. Also, for the drivers it was to get more of an adaptation with the modern FIA Formula 3 machinery. Most drivers were making a step up to an entirely new level of motorsport, while for returning drivers it would be a different car that they had been driving in Formula 3, in past seasons. The green light would be on at the end of the pit lane at 09:00 local time and day 2 of pre-season testing was go, with three hours of on-track action ahead of the FIA Formula 3 Championship. In the early stages, drivers were setting a few lap times but they were still building to what the pace was of the representative top lap times of Wednesday' session. Martinius Stenshorne of Hitech TGR would go to the top in the opening 10 minutes. Stenshorne's time of 1:49.908 was almost certain to be beaten as it was 22 seconds behind the best lap time of Day 1 which was set in the afternoon by Mexican driver Noel Leon, of Prema Racing. The lap time from Stenshorne would be continuously beaten by many drivers in the first hour the order changing frequently due to drivers finding time and pace to improve their lap times and do better than their competitors. With an hour gone in the session, it would be ART that were showing strong pace once again, like they had done throughout the opening day of testing. All three ART Grand Prix drivers were in the top 10 of the overall classification on Wednesday. It would be a 1-2 at the end of the first hour, with Finnish rookie Tuukka Taponen going to the top of the time sheets with a 1:26.838, which would be the fastest time of pre-season testing so far. He was ahead of his teammate Laurens Van Hoepen by a good four tenths of a second. Just like drivers found time throughout the first hour, they were set to find more time in the second hour. Halfway through the second hour, and the midway point of the morning session of testing, there would be a change to the top of the times with Campos' Bulgarian racer Nikola Tsolov taking the top time. Tsolov would jump above the ART of Taponen, and into first place with a 1:26.18, which would still be faster than an improved lap time from Taponen which was at a 1:26.782. Over a tenth and a half the gap between the top two. Van Hoepen remained third with also an improved lap time of 1:26.995 while Campos' Mari Boya and Rodin's Louis Sharp were the top five with exactly half of the session still remaining. Soon enough it would be time for the majority of the drivers to be sat in the pit lane to review data with the Red Bull junior Tsolov still with the fastest time as there was just one hour remaining in the morning session. Almost half of the pre-season testing for the 2025 FIA Formula 3 season was complete. The Trident cars would be out on circuit though entering the final hour and the team with the last two drivers' championships, had a point to prove after they finished 28th, 29th and 30th in the overall classification on day 1. However, all three of their drivers, Charlie Wurz, Rafael Camara and Noah Stromsted would all make significant improvements into the top 10 positions. Stromsted would be the best of he and his teammates by leaping up into third place. Stromsted would set a 1:26.938, which would be less than a tenth faster than the previous third place driver Van Hoepen. Camara and Wurz would put themselves into eighth and ninth place respectively. There would be a red flag within the final hour after a yellow flag at turn eight. According to the timing pages, Nicola Lacorte came to a stop for DAMS Lucas Oil and had his final hour to the session ruined in a cruel way. It would be a short pause in action and once the incident at turn 8 had been cleared, green flag conditions were upon testing again and the final 40 minutes would hopefully be enjoyed without disruption. As time ticked down to the final 15 minutes of the session, Tsolov and Taponen were looking comfortable as the top two of the session and it was going to take some effort to beat them in the latter stages. Ultimately, no one could dislodge Nikola Tsolov by the time the chequered flag was waved from the Race Control tower, which signalled the end of the morning session of day 2 and the halfway point of pre-season testing - for 2025. Tsolov was quickest with a 1:26.618 ahead of the ART Grand Prix of rookie Tuukka Taponen, who would finish the morning session in second place. Noah Stromsted for Trident would have a much better start to day 2 than day 1 and would finish third. All Trident cars would be in the top 10 but it would be ART's Laurens Van Hoepen and Campos' Mari Boya who rounded off the top five. Rodin Motorsport duo Louis Sharp and Roman Bilinski were sixth and seventh. The two remaining Trident drivers Rafael Camara and Charlie Wurz would be eighth and ninth respectively while day 1 top man Noel Leon would complete the top 10 for Prema. Teams and drivers would break for a lunch break and would be returning for another three-hour session in the afternoon, where all 30 drivers and 10 teams would be looking to get in more lap times and more data.
After a lunch break, following the morning session, it would be time for the new pieces of FIA Formula 3 machinery to return to the track, to complete day 2 of pre-season testing for the 2025 Formula 3 season. After Nikola Tsolov of Campos Racing topped the morning session, Campos would be hoping that their driver's pace would be something representative of their car's performance. They would have the opportunity to prove so in the day's afternoon session. The green light would come on at the end of the pit lane and three hours of running at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya would be underway for the afternoon session, of day 2 of pre-season testing for the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship. In the first 15 minutes of the session it would be Polish driver Roman Bilinski of Rodin Motorsport, who would leap to the top of the time sheets, ahead of Nikola Tsolov in the Campos Racing car. Bilinski's time would be a 1:28.581, which would be over three tenths clear of Tsolov's time which was a 1:28.933. Callum Voisin, Bilinski's Rodin Motorsport teammate was a provisional third. After the first hour, Tsolov would reclaim the top spot for the Campos team, and the Spanish outfit would cover the entire top three on home turf. Tasanapol Intrhaphuvasak would be in second place for Campos, with Spaniard Mari Boya in third. Tsolov's time to beat was a 1:27.249, which was two tenths clear of Inthraphuvasak's time, who himself was nearly three tenths clear of Boys. Provisionally, Tim Tramnitz of MP Motorsport and Noah Stromsted of Trident were fourth and fifth respectively. There would be a change to the top three throughout the second hour of the three-hour session on Thursday afternoon. The all-Campos top three would be disrupted by Hitech TGR's Martinius Stenshorne, as the Norwegian driver went third fastest with a 1:27.569. The top five with an hour remaining of the session would be: Tsolov, Inthraphuvasak, Strenshorne, Boya and Tramnitz but there would still be plenty of time where there was a potential for the order to change near the top. Many improvements would be made to the personal best lap times of many of the 30 drivers competing in the session but Nikola Tsolov would not need to as the chequered flag flew from the Race Control tower, which would signal the end of day 2 of pre-season testing in the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship. Tsolov would have topped both sessions throughout the day on Thursday and would therefore finish top of the afternoon session. It would be a Campos 1-2 as Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak would be second and would round off the excellent afternoon for the team on home soil. The Campos duo of Tsolov and Inthraphuvasak would be joined in the top three by Red Bull junior and MP Motorsport driver Tim Tramnitz. Martinius Stenshorne of Hitech TGR and Laurens Van Hoepen of ART Grand Prix, would be fourth and fifth respectively and would complete the top five for the afternoon session. At the end of the afternoon session, it would be sixth for Spaniard Mari Boya of Campos, who was ahead of MP Motorsport duo Alessandro Giusti and Bruno Del Pino that were seventh and eighth. Prema's Noel Leon was ninth while Gerrard Xie of Hitech TGR would complete the top 10. Track action would return for the final day of pre-season testing on Friday as the build up to racing action, in the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship continues. 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship: Pre-season testing - Barcelona Day 2 official classification
 Brandon Whiteside
Writer & X Contributor - F1 Journal
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