The fifth round of the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship got underway in chaotic fashion with its Sprint Race around the Circuit Barcelona de Catalunya. DNFs aplenty, close racing and drama in the final moments of the race all ultimately led to VAR achieving their first ever 1-2 finish Formula 3 history. Here’s how it unfolded.
Chaos at the Start!
Roman Bilinski began Saturday’s Sprint Race on Reverse Pole with Martinius Stenshorne lining up alongside him. But any dreams that the pair had of winning on Saturday would soon come crashing down around them.
As the Sprint Race got underway, the battle for the lead commenced immediately. Stenshorne made a bold move up the inside into T1 to take the lead for himself. It looked briefly like an inspired move as he somehow pulled if off. But contact with Tramnitz – three cars into one corner never goes well – pushed him across the track towards Bilinksi. Inevitably, Stenshorne made contact with Bilinski and both cars tumbled off the track together and into the barriers. Their races were done.
Tramnitz went wide into T3 as a result of the contact. The German driver went off into the gravel and subsequently out of the race. Just like that, the top three from the Sprint Race were out in just the first few corners.
Disaster for Câmara!
Rafael Câmara may have taken Pole Position in qualifying for Sunday’s Feature Race in Barcelona, but Sprint Races famously don’t go his way. It was no different this time around for the Brazilian.
Ahead of him on the starting grid, Tuukka Taponen stalled on the grid. Unable to avoid him in time as he got his own race started, Câmara drove straight into the back of the Finnish driver. The damage sustained to both cars was too severe for either one of them to continue.
With less than one lap of racing completed, one sixth of the field had already been eliminated from contention.
Race Restart
Domingues led the pack away for the race reastart when the Safety Cars returned to the pits. Stromstead and Van Hoepen were in hot pursuit behind him.
Crucially for the Championship, Nikola Tsolov had survived the opening lap melee and was keen to move up the order. Further down the pack, another survivor was James Wharton. He’d been able to make his way up to 6th from 13th. The Australian was determined to stay there so that he could score his first points of the season.
Santiago Ramos proceeded to overtake Van Hoepen down into T1 with a brilliant overtake. Tsolov then went past him a few laps later to take fourth place.
Further back, Mari Boya sold the dummy in brilliant fashion to del Pino into T5. He overtook him on the inside of the corner to claim P10. Not waiting around, Boya went on to overtake Leon at the start of the following lap too.
A few laps later, having taken inspiration from his teammate Boya, Inthraphuvasak made the same move on Del Pino down into T5.
VAR Dare to Dream
Stromstead was closing up to Domingues as the laps were counting down and threatened to ruin his day. But suddenly, Stromstead slowed down unexpectedly! He entered the pits with an unknown issue with four laps left in the race and was forced to retire – heartbreak for the Danish driver.
It was now a VAR 1-2 with Ivan Domingues and Santiago Ramos out in front. Up until now, VAR had never taken a 1-2 finish as a team in Formula 3 before. Would now be the time that history could be made?
Further back, a brilliant battle was unfolding between Louis Sharp and Bruno del Pino. But while the pair were so focused on tangling with each other, Singaporean Driver Christian Ho swept past the pair of them around T11.
On the final lap of the race, a yellow flag was suddenly brandished! This was because of a stray wheel rolling along the track by itself. It transpired that it had come from the rear right of the AIX car of Garfias. Thankfully, he was able to pull over to one side safely.
VAR 1-2 Finish in Barcelona!
Ivan Domingues swept across the start-finish straight to win the Sprint Race in Barcelona for VAR. Santiago Ramos came home in P2 with Nikola Tsolov rounding out the podium in third.
Van Hoepen finished in fourth with Nael in fifth. Giusti finished in a brilliant sixth place with Maria Boya in seventh. Wharton finished in eighth and so claimed his first points of the year. Inthraphuvasak finished in P9 with Leon rounding out the top ten.
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Formula 3 continues tomorrow with the Feature Race in Barcelona.
Photo Credit: VAR
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