Rafael Camara converts pole to victory again in Formula 3 with win in Bahrain!

Credit: James Sutton

Stunning driving from Brazilian Rafael Camara who extends his championship lead with second successive Formula 3 Feature Race victory at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Following on from taking pole position and winning the Feature Race with the fastest lap in Melbourne, Camara came into the round with the championship lead but he replicated such domination in Sakhir in the boiling Bahrain temperatures.

Camara won the Feature Race by over six seconds to Rodin Motorsport's Callum Voisin in second place. The pair had a good fight for the race lead in the early stages but it was the Trident of Camara that came out on top.

For the second successive year, MP Motorsport's Tim Tramnitz took third place in the Bahrain Feature Race. ART driver Tuukka Taponen and Saturday Sprint Race winner Nikola Tsolov rounded off the top five.

Camara extended his championship lead to 26 points over Tramnitz of MP Motorsport who sits on 30 points, as opposed to Camara's 56.

How the Bahrain Feature Race unfolded

Grand Prix Sunday descended on the Bahrain International Circuit but that meant Feature Race Sunday for the FIA Formula 3 Championship with an exciting 22-lap race inbound following a stunning Sprint Race on Saturday.

On Saturday it was the Campos Red Bull junior Nikola Tsolov who took victory to win a record-equalling fourth race in the FIA Formula 3 Championship. He fought off a fierce and pacey debutant Freddie Slater, who drove brilliantly to finish second for AIX Racing.

However, for Sunday, the grid for the Feature Race was determined by the order of qualifying that was determined on Friday. For a second successive Feature Race, championship leader Rafael Camara was to start from pole position. He was to have Rodin's Callum Voisin alongside him on the front row.

Behind them on the second row would be the Trident of Charlie Wurz and the DAMS Lucas Oil of Christian Ho.

​The lights went out for 22 laps of racing at the Bahrain International Circuit and it was Voisin who got the best start as into the first turn he got ahead of the Trident of Camara and took the lead of the Feature Race. Wurz was behind in third.

There was no shortage of action at the start of the race with James Wharton being accidentally spun round by the DAMS of Matias Zagazeta, who was had not seen Wharton coming round the corner behind another car in Zagazeta's line of vision. Zagazeta was also side by side with Van Amersfoort's Ivan Domingues.

The incident was viewed as a racing incident and no further investigation was taken against the ART of Wharton or the Peruvian Zagazeta. 

Out front the leading pair had closed up and Camara was in DRS range of race leader Voisin. Into the first turn and Camara used the DRS advantage to get ahead and into the race lead. However, Voisin would use the DRS on the run down to turn four to get back ahead through the turn four, five, six and seven complex. 

Freddie Slater had a fantastic debut race in the Saturday Sprint Race but a form of issue with the car forced him into retiring his AIX Racing machine only on lap three. 

Also on lap three there was a brief Virtual Safety Car which had been caused by some of the debris that had flown off in wheel to wheel combat between drivers. This Virtual Safety Car was very brief with early on through lap four, the racing would be back underway.

Camara had not fallen back from the race leader Voisin despite being re-overtaken by the Rodin driver. On the fifth lap, the Brazilian would take the lead using the DRS advantage on the start/finish straight and was to stay ahead throughout the next set of DRS Zones.

Up to third on lap seven was Tuukka Taponen. The ART driver who finished third in the Saturday Sprint Race was back into third place again. Taponen passed the Trident of Charlie Wurz who had fallen back from the leading pair.

Overtakes were being made up and down the field with Tim Tramnitz on a charge from 13th on the grid. Lap eight and he took sixth from the Singaporean driver Christian Ho of DAMS Lucas Oil.

That lap would be positive for MP Motorsport with Tramnitz's teammate Alessandro Giusti also moving up a place via an overtake. Williams Academy driver Giusti made the move into 10th by passing the Prema of Brando Badoer.

​Birthday boy Mari Boya was making progress early on despite starting only 20th. By the halfway point in the race he was up to 12th after passing Noel Leon and was on the fringes of the points scoring positions.

Further forward a battle was forming for fifth with Noah Stromsted leading a trio of cars who were all eager to hold fifth place. The two that Stromsted had to contend with were Red Bull junior driver duo Tramnitz and Tsolov driving for MP Motorsport and Campos Racing respectively.

Stromsted was struggling for grip and lap 12 Tramnitz would make fifth place his own with a great pass to get ahead of the Danish Trident driver and that would be Tramnitz up into fifth and Stromsted down to sixth.

Tsolov showed great speed in the Saturday Sprint Race and was continuing to do so in the Sunday Feature Race. One lap later he would take sixth from Stromsted and followed his fellow Red Bull junior counterpart up the road. The duo were chasing Taponen and Wurz.

Prema usually dominate Formula 3 and have won every bar one of the Teams Championships since the championship began in 2019. After a difficult start to the season, they were hoping for better in Bahrain. The team were no doubt anxious when they had two driver, Brando Badoer and Noel Leon, fighting for position.

Fighting through the turns five and six, Badoer ran out of road and made the sensible decision to take to the run off area and rejoin behind his Mexican teammate Leon.

An incident was noted that happened between Campos' Tasanapol Inthaphuvasak and Rodin Motorsport's Roman Bilinski. The Campos driver appeared to find his way ahead of the Rodin driver off the track and subsequently was noted for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

The Stewards would investigate the incident and would hand Inthraphuvasak with a 10-second time penalty as they saw he was the person responsible. This was one of two penalties in the race handed out with the other being handed to the McLaren junior Ugo Ugochukwu.

Ugochukwu had exceeded track limits more than the three strikes given to each driver per race. On his fourth occasion and Ugochukwu was handed a five-second time penalty which was added to his race time at the end of the race.

Alessandro Giusti had been showing great speed throughout the Feature Race and on lap 16 he took eighth from the DAMS Lucas Oil driver Christian Ho. Giusti and his MP Motorsport teammate Tramnitz were having strong drives through the field and one lap later Tramnitz had fourth from Charlie Wurz with another excellent pass at turn 4.

Tsolov was also keeping busy and keeping himself on a charge towards those podium places and the Bulgarian would move into fifth passing Wurz, who was beginning to struggle with tyre wear.

The same lap, lap 19, Tramnitz moved into the podium positions by taking third from Sprint Race third place finisher Taponen. Tramnitz was in position to finish third in a Bahrain Feature Race for the second sucessive Formula 3 season. 

Boya was another driver making progress he ended up in the points on lap 19 when he passed the other MP Motorsport car of Bruno Del Pino..

Moving onto the penultimate lap of the race and Noah Stromested was back up to fifth following a pass on teammate Wurz in a heated battle for position. Wurz was falling back and fell behind Giusti into seventh place.

Ho, Boya and Del Pino were all fancying their chances to get ahead of the Austrian driver. Onto the final lap and Wurz's tyres had completely fallen off and he had dropped out of the points paying positions, which were the top 10.

However, out front Rafael Camara had won the Feature Race in dominant style after he had to get back ahead of Callum Voisin in the early stages of the race. He dominated in Melbourne too by taking pole on the Friday and winning the Sunday Feature Race while taking the fastest lap too!

History was repeating itself and in doing so became the first driver to win the first two Feature Races in a FIA Formula 3 campaign and in doing so had extended his championship lead to 26 points.

Camara took victory from Voisin who finished second despite being over six seconds off the championship lead. MP Motorsport's Tim Tramnitz completed the podium in third place. Rounding off the top five were ART's Tuukka Taponen and Saturday Sprint Race winner Nikola Tsolov.

Coming home in sixth was Mercedes junior Noah Stromsted of Trident, who finished ahead of Mp Motorsport  and Williams Academy driver Alessandro Giusti in seventh. Birthday boy Mari Boya came home in eighth ahead of Bruno Del Pino and Christian Ho completed the point scorers and top 10.

It will be a while before FIA Formula 3 returns, which will be when the championship heads to Imola for the start of a very busy European season in over a month's time. Free Practice commences on May 16.

2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship: Round 2 - Bahrain Feature Race Provisional Classification

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

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal