FIA Formula 3 sees first Mexican winner as Santiago Ramos takes first win in the championship14/3/2025  Credit: Pauline Ballet On a day of a brand new era of car machinery making its racing debut, there would be further history on Saturday morning, as Santiago Ramos became the first driver from Mexico to win a race in the FIA Formula 3 championship. Ramos converted his reverse grid pole into his maiden victory in a very strong showing as he demonstrated great speed, resilience and calmness behind the wheel. A great kick start to the celebrations for his team Van Amersfoort Racing, who this year are celebrating their 50th anniversary. The Mexican driver, who is using the number 21, took victory from Hitech's McLaren development driver Martinius Stenshorne who finished second. The pair would be joined on the podium by rookie Roman Bilinski. The Polish driver finishing third on his Formula 3 debut in a sensational drive. It was a race with so much action that finished behind the safety car. Only 22 of the 30 that started would see the chequered flag and complete every lap available to them. How the first Formula 3 sprint race of 2025 unfoldedOn Saturday, it would be time to go racing, in a brand new era of FIA Formula 3, with a brand new piece of machinery the drivers would be using to race from 2025 onwards! This would be the first change of Formula 3 machinery, since the championship's formation in 2019. Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia would be the venue to play host to this brand new era but it would also play host to the opening round of the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship. It would be time for racing action, following the free practice and qualifying on Friday and Saturday. On Friday morning it would be the Trident of Rafael Camara, who would finish fastest in his first ever competitive Formula 3 session. The 2024 FRECA champion would also go and take pole position later on in the day, during his debut qualifying session. It would be a qualifying session that would have two red flags, one for Brando Badoer who spun at turn 2 while Christian Ho would stop with a mechanical issue, which would bring the session to a close. Badoer would be found to have been the direct cause of the red flag and was subsequently penalised as it is a breach of the Sporting Regulations of the FIA Formula 3 Championship. This would see him have his best lap time of the session deleted, which initially had him 19th. In the final classification, Badoer would end 28th - the lowest out of the classified drivers. As for the Formula 3 sprint race, which would be the first race of the 2025 season but the first of two across the weekend, with the feature race to come on Sunday. The top 12 from qualifying would be reversed to form the starting grid. Starting on the reverse grid pole would be Van Amersfoort's Santiago Ramos, who would be starting from the front of the field. Alongside Ramos would be the DAMS Lucas Oil of Matias Zagazeta, with DAMS having a great chance to get a great result on Formula 3 debut this weekend. It would be time for the race and once all 30 drivers had made their way around the Albert Park Circuit on the formation lap, it would be time to go racing for the first time in 2025. The lights would go out and pole sitter Ramos would get off the line well and hold off the challenge from Zagazeta, who was having to focus on the drivers behind him. It was a very bright start for Ramos who was clear of the challenges. Meanwhile Zagazeta was having an intense battle between Roman Bilinski, Martinius Stenshorne and even Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak. Racing would be neutralised soon enough due to Trident's Charlie Wurz having a tangle with MP Motorsport's Tim Tramnitz on the opening lap. The Virtual Safety Car (VSC) would be deployed and this would give marshals the chance to move the broken Trident to a safe place. Another tangle on the opening lap would be between the Rodin Motorsport of Louis Sharp and the Hitech of TGR at turn 11. The Stewards would see this the fault of Dufek and would hand him a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision. Lap three and the race would be back underway with immediate action as Tramnitz would take fifth from Inthraphuvasak who was caught off guard by drivers in front of him. Meanwhile drama between the ART cars and the Trident of Rafael Camara. Laurens Van Hoepen and James Wharton would both be significantly involved in the incident and they would be forced to retire as well as Camara. The Safety Car (SC) would be introduced for the first time in 2025 with Van Hoepen and Camara on the circuit whereas Wharton managed to get his ART car back to the pits but it was in too poor of a position for him to continue the race. Wharton would later receive a time penalty of 10 seconds whilst already being out of the race. During the SC period, Tramnitz seemed to have a mechanical issue as he stopped on the entry of the pit lane on lap seven. He would then proceed to go through the pit lane and rejoin the track and do one more lap. The following lap he would pit again to retire the car. However, he would return to the circuit many laps down, in the later parts of the race, to get some lap times set and get important data for Sunday's feature race. End of lap eight and the safety car would enter the pits once again and the race would be back to green flag racing conditions. Ramos handled the restart well and would take control once again out front. It would be a dramatic restart with Theophile Nael and Nikita Bedrin having a fascinating battle on the run down to turn three. A good restart lap from Ramos would see him being chased by Stenshorne but Ramos was doing enough to hold off the charging Norwegian, in what was some great driving from both talents trying to further their careers. Lap 16 of 20 and the SC would be re-introduced with a clumsy accident between AIX's Javier Sagrera and MP Motorsport's Bruno Del Pino in what was a fairly big accident that required clearing up by the hardworking marshals. Due to the little time left in the race, the first Formula 3 race of the 2025 campaign would finish behind the safety car, meaning FIA Formula 3 history was about to be made once again. For the first time in the modern FIA Formula 3 Championship, it would be a Mexican driver to take victory. Santiago Ramos for Van Amersfoort Racing, on the team's 50th year anniversary, would be the man to do it, in a deserving victory. Ramos would take the victory ahead of Norwegian McLaren Development driver Martinius Stenshorne, who would have to settle for second. Someone who had flown under the radar throughout was Roman Bilinski. The Polish driver kept his nose clean and finished third on his debut FIA Formula 3 race - a great achievement from the Rodin Motorsport driver. Campos' Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak was fourth with Matias Zagazeta completing the top five in a great result for DAMS Lucas OIl. The first ever Formula 3 race for DAMS Lucas Oil and they secure a top five finish on debut. Nikita Bedrin of AIX Racing was sixth ahead of Theophile Nael in seventh place. Nikola Tsolov, Callum Voisin and Noel Leon rounded off the top 10 finishers. Formula 3 action would return on Sunday morning in Melbourne for the first feature race of the 2025 season. 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship: Round 1 - Melbourne Sprint Race provisional classification
 Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal
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