Championship leader Camara fastest in close contested Formula 3 field!

Credit: James Sutton

Trident's Formula 3 Championship leader Rafael Camara set the fastest time in an uneventful Free Practice session, on Friday at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Camara shone in the weekend's opening round and with a fantastic lap in the final five minutes topped the session ahead of Red Bull Junior and Campos Racing driver Nikola Tsolov, who finished second. Finnish driver Tuukka Taponen finished third.

The session was non eventful due to recent mid season testing that had taken place for the Formula 3 drivers around the Bahrain International Circuit. Therefore, drivers only needed limited running. Only Ivan Domingues had set a lap with 15 minutes remaining in the session.

However, it was the championship leader Camara who set the fastest time, which was a 1:50.984.

How Formula 3 Free Practice unfolded in Bahrain

For the first time since March it was race weekend action time in the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship. The second round of the season taking place in the city of Sakhir and at the Bahrain International Circuit.

With the drivers having a decent knowledge of the circuit following mid-season testing just over a week prior to the event, the drivers would be feeling confident ahead of the weekend. The circuit would be one that the 30 drivers would have a good recent memory of.

This would include AIX Racing's debut driver Freddie Slater who also competed in the three-day mid season test with his teammates Javier Sagrera and Nicola Marinangeli.

Free Practice would get underway with the green light coming on at the end of the pit lane. 45 minutes would be the session time, with the drivers having good understanding of the circuit.

With these factors, there would be little action throughout the first half an hour of the session with just Ivan Domingues having set a lap time for Van Amersfoort Racing. The Portuguese driver would register a lap time of 1:52.776 before pitting.

With under 15 minutes remaining there would be eventually cars on circuit with Domingues prompting the entrance of the entire field and there would be some lap times in the latter part of the session at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Campos driver Nikola Tsolov had shown great speed in mid season testing and the Bulgarian would rise to the top of the time sheets with a 1:51.111. Many drivers were setting competitive lap times, including Roman Bilinski who would go second fastest - albeit three tenths further back.

However, Tsolov would have to settle for second at the end of the session, as to finish top of the time sheets would be Rafael Camara with a 1:50.984 as the chequered flag signified the end of Free Practice in Bahrain.

Camara would be fastest ahead of Tsolov with the ART of Tuukka Taponen making it two drivers inside the top three part of the Ferrari Driver Academy! Santiago Ramos of Van Amersfoort Racing would be fourth, with MP Motorsport's Alessandro Giusti completing the top five.

Trident's Charlie Wurz was sixth ahead of seventh place driver Roman Bilinski. MP Motorsport driver Tim Tramnitz was eighth ahead of his teammate Bruno Del Pino in ninth. Ugo Ugochukwu completed the top 10 for Prema Racing.

Action would return for the qualifying session, later on in the Friday session which would set the grid for both races.

2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship: Round 2 - Bahrain Free Practice provisional result

1. Rafael Camara
2. Nikola Tsolov
3. Tuukka Taponen
4. Santiago Ramos
5. Alessandro Giusti
6. Charlie Wurz
7. Roman Bilinski
8. Tim Tramnitz
9. Bruno Del Pino
10. Ugo Ugochukwu
11. Christian Ho
12. Mari Boya
13. Joshua Dufek
14. Martinius Stenshorne
15. Freddie Slater
16. James Wharton
17. Louis Sharp
18. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak
19. Laurens Van Hoepen
20. Noel Leon
21. Callum Voisin
22. Noah Stromsted
23. Brando Badoer
24. Ivan Domingues
25. Matias Zagazeta
26. Nicola Lacorte
27. Theophile Nael
28. Gerrard Xie
29. Nicola Marinangeli
30. Javier Sagrera

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal