Tuukka Taponen claimed his maiden pole position of the season, storming ahead in F3 Qualifying at the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Ferrari Academy Driver edged out Championship contender Freddie Slater for second, while Taponen’s teammate Mattia Colnaghi ended the session in third.
Green Light on Qualifying
After their only practice earlier today Formula 3 was back for Qualifying at the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix. Theophile Nael was quick to jump to the top of the timesheets, in what will be a tightly contested weekend. With only one point separating Ugo Ugochukwu and Freddie Slater in the Championship, the tensions are high ahead of the summer break.
With only 30 minutes on the clock, it was imperative that the field was smart with their laps. While Slater and Ugochukwu sat down in seventh and ninth respectively, Tuukka Taponen and Jin Nakamura slotted into the top three.
After the first round of flying laps, it was Louis Sharp, Bruno Del Pino and Salim Hanna who were yet to set a lap. As the closed ticked down so did the times. Brando Badoer and Nicola Lacorte were next at the front of the timesheets, before being bettered by Slater.
Ugochukwu was unable to respond to Slater, with the American driver clocking into 12th. On track, the demanding Hunagroring was starting to take prisoners. VAR’s Enzo Deligny took a trip through the dirt before running through a marker board.
Dash for the Flag
With ten minutes to go, the entire field was in and out of the pits with fresh soft tyres. Jostling for on track positions, it was Badoer who kicked off the flying laps. The Italian driver, who races for Rodin Motorsport was forced to abort his lap. Behind him, Nael was on track for a high finish, while Pedro Claret set a purple first sector.
However, a slow end to the Hungaroring caused many of the field to fail to improve. With two minutes to go, Slater was still on provisional pole, 0.024s ahead of Mattia Colnaghi.
Slaters reign came to an end as Ferrari Junior Taponen bettered the Trident driver by four hundredths with less than two minutes to go. Ugochukwu had improved, leading a Campos sixth-seventh-eighth.
Checkered Flag on Qualifying
As Qualifying came to an end, it was Tuukka Taponen who claimed his first pole position in Formula 3. MP Motorsport teammate Colnaghi ended the session in third behind Audi backed Slater.
The Italians locked out fourth and fifth as Lacorte edged out Badoer. Ugochukwu led teammates Nael and Rivera. who will start Saturdays Sprint Race from the front row. While Hitech driver Nakamura claimed ninth ahead of Gerard Xie, who had a relatively quiet session in tenth.
Formula 3 will return tomorrow for the Sprint Race at 10:05am local time, before Sunday’s Feature race at 8:40am GMT-2.
Feature Image Credit: Formula 3