Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

Ernesto Rivera won Eurocup-3’s second race at Spa-Francorchamps, as Mattia Colnaghi put one hand on the title.

There was pre-race drama as an issue with the lights gantry meant two formation laps were required, and when racing got underway MP Motorsport’s poleman Emmo Fittipaldi failed to get off the line until he had been overtaken by 20 drivers.

His team-mate Mattia Colnaghi led Campos Racing’s Rivera into Eau Rouge, and Kacper Sztuka tried to make it three-wide at the front down the Kemmel Straight. It then became four-wide as his Campos team-mate Jesse Carrasquedo Jr became involved.

Carrasquedo tried going for the lead around the outside of Les Combes and made it work, but by Bruxelles it was Rivera who was ahead. Not long after safety car boards were being shown, as Colnaghi’s main title rival and team-mate Valerio Rinicella had crashed out exiting Les Combes.

MP had further misfortune as Andres Cardenas pitted at the end of the lap, but he was back with the field when racing resumed on lap four.

Rivera weaved down the Kemmel Straight on the restart and there was contact with Carrasquedo approaching Les Combes where he tried reclaiming the lead on the outside and cut the chicane.

Approaching the chicane at the end of the lap he let Rivera back through then immediately swept to the inside to try to reclaim the lead. But Colnaghi had squeezed his car into the gap too and got past.

Behind them were MP’s Alexander Abkhazava and Palou Motorsport’s James Egozi, with the latter taking fourth into turn one on lap five. Rivera weaved his way to Les Combes again and it led to another banging of wheels with Carrasquedo. He did get the lead once more, but let Rivera past before Pouhon.

A legal lead pass was pulled on lap six, with Carrasquedo getting the move done on the Kemmel Straight and quickly pulling away once in clean air.

The gap between the top two started to reduce on lap eight, with Rivera returning to first place down the Kemmel Straight on lap nine. Before he could pull away, the safety car was called out a lap later due to drama at turn one.

MP’s Maciej Gladysz has overtaken Abkhazava on lap seven, and at the end of lap nine Egozi ran wide exiting turn 19 and cut the final corner. Abkhazava went back past around the outside, and Gladysz looked to overtake him on the inside.

When they got to turn one, Gladysz drove into the back of Abkhazava and broke his front-left wheel and front wing. It sent him into the gravel where he got beached, and when Sztuka also got involved exiting the corner he got damage that led to him stopping on track. After Gladysz exited his car, he appeared to be in pain.

Egozi got back past Abkhazava and Colnaghi cleared Carrasquedo before racing was neutralised, and the next restart came on the last lap. Rivera held on for his third victory of 2025, and after Egozi made a failed attack on Carrasquedo at Les Combes he ended up going side-by-side with Campos’s Enzo Tarnvanichkul through sector three and was overtaken.

Both ran wide exiting turn 19 and cut the final corner, and Tarnvanichkul was docked one place post-race. Sztuka and Gladysz were handed five-place grid penalties due to retiring.

Race results (12 laps)

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Photo: Eurocup-3

Campos Racing’s Jesse Carrasquedo Jr won a shortened first Eurocup-3 race of the day at Spa-Francorchamps.

His car was pointed left when he lined up on the grid, ready to move to the outside line once racing got underway. But the start was aborted, and the race time was reduced as the car of Palou Motorsport’s Luciano Morano was stuck on the grid.

A second formation lap took place, sans Morano, and Carrasquedo did not repeat his earlier tactic.

MP Motorsport’s Mattia Colnaghi made the best launch, going from fourth into second by diving to the inside into the opening corner, then there was a three-wide moment down the Kemmel Straight.

Having retained his starting position of third, Campos’s Kacper Sztuka tried passing Colnaghi around the outside at Les Combes and they remained side-by-side through to Bruxelles. He could not make a pass, and by the end of the lap was under attack from team-mate Enzo Tarnvanichkul.

The pair swapped places at Les Combes on lap two, with more three-wide action behind them. MP’s front row starter Valerio Rinicella had dropped to sixth behind Campos’s Jules Caranta, who then attacked Sztuka around the outside of Les Combes on lap three.

He was lining up another attempt to pass later in the lap when rain began to fall, and the final corners only got wetter thereon.

Racing continued under green flag conditions initially, with Palou’s James Egozi and MP’s Maciej Gladysz making contact and going off at Les Combes on lap four as they disputed seventh place.

Rinicella had reclaimed a place by passing Caranta at Raidillon, but conceded that spot and many more by pitting at the end of lap five for wet-weather tyres.

The rain had extended to sector one by lap six, and Palou’s Alceu Feldmann Neto had a scary spin at Eau Rouge while Carrasquedo had to defend his lead and several drivers had offs. Race control put the race under safety car conditions later in the lap, and Feldman was among four drivers to pit for more suitable rubber.

Although the rain reduced in the final sector on lap seven, the clouds releasing it moved to sector two and drivers faced sunny conditions and torrential rain on lap eight. Racing resumed on lap nine, but race-ending red flags were waving by the time the field reached Eau Rouge and the results were taken from the end of lap seven.

Carrasquedo was victorious, and Colnaghi grew his championship lead by 18 points as title rival Rinicella finished 22nd.

Race results (7 laps)

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Photo: Eurocup-3

Jesse Carrasquedo Jr and Emmo Fittipaldi will start today’s Eurocup-3 races at Spa-Francorchamps from pole position.

Campos Racing driver Carrasquedo earned race one pole by topping the first of two 15-minute qualifying sessions this morning.

Isaac Barashi was fastest at first in Q1, which took place on a wet track, but after giving a tow to Drivex School’s Jorge Garciarce he lost top spot to the debutant.

Enzo Tarnvanichkul crossed the line a few seconds later and set a 2m14.524s to go fastest, but only occupied first place for four seconds before team-mate Carrasquedo beat him by 0.115 seconds.

When MP Motorsport’s Valerio Rinicella crossed the line he then went quickest, with a 0.232s advantage over Carrasquedo.

Tarnvanichkul responded on his next lap, moving back ahead with a 2m13.797s. However he was only on provisional pole briefly, as not long after Campos’s Kacper Sztuka went quickest by 0.255s.

Sztuka’s benchmark stood for for two minutes, with some of his rivals doing cooldown laps. Once Carrasquedo got back up to pace, he had two successive improvements and both were good enough for pole.

He posted a 2m13.381s with three minutes to go, then bettered that by 0.02s but had that effort deleted.

Rinicella got within 0.032s of the lap that stood, and MP’s Mattia Colnaghi was 0.028s shy of Sztuka in fourth.

Tarnvanichkul ended Q1 in fifth, but would have been lower had MP’s Maciej Gladysz not had his fastest lap deleted and qualified in eighth.

Campos’s Francisco Macedo in 12th place was the only driver to improve after the chequered flag waved, and Fittipaldi qualified 15th.

The track was still wet for Q2, and it caught out Campos’s Jules Caranta who had an incident that led to red flags and the session ending 95s early.

Palou’s Barashi and Luciano Morano were quickest in the first half of the session, then Garciarce — who was 1.799s off the pace and placed 21st in Q1 — set a more representative pace with a 2m15.718s lap.

He was on top for two minutes, after which Morano got back ahead by 0.554s. But when Garciarce crossed the line he also made a big improvement to 2m14.679s.

That was not going to be enough to qualify near the front though, and with just over two minutes to go Rinicella moved to the top by setting a 2m13.021s.

Laptimes continued to improve, and Campos’s Ernesto Rivera brought the pace down into the 2m12s. He was providing a tow to Colnaghi, who sent fastest by 0.064s with a 2m12.840s, and six seconds later team-mate Fittipaldi posted a 2m12.693s that would not be beaten.

Garciarce could not find any more pace on his last two laps and dropped to 17th, while Sztuka made it up to fifth ahead of Carrasquedo and MP’s Andres Cardenas, Gladysz and Alexander Abkhazava.

Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Jesse Carrasquedo Jr Campos Racing 2m13.381s
2 Valerio Rinicella MP Motorsport +0.032s
3 Kacper Sztuka Campos Racing +0.161s
4 Mattia Colnaghi MP Motorsport +0.189s
5 Enzo Tarnvanichkul Campos Racing +0.416s
6 Andres Cardenas MP Motorsport +0.504s
7 Jules Caranta Campos Racing +0.505s
8 Maciej Gladysz MP Motorsport +0.576s
9 Kai Daryanani MP Motorsport +0.713s
10 James Egozi Palou Motorsport +0.787s

Race 2 grid
1 Emmo Fittipaldi MP Motorsport 2m12.693s
2 Colnaghi +0.147s
3 Ernesto Rivera Campos Racing +0.211s
4 Rinicella +0.328s
5 Sztuka +0.441s
6 Carrasquedo +0.691s
7 Cardenas +0.727s
8 Gladysz +0.919s
9 Alexander Abkhazava MP Motorsport +0.952s
10 Tarnvanichkul +1.196s

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Photo: MP Motorsport

Mattia Colnaghi led MP Motorsport team-mate Valerio Rinicella by 0.339 seconds in free practice at Spa-Francorchamps on Thursday.

There were two pre-event test sessions earlier in the day, and it was another MP one-two in the first but with Kai Daryanani leading Alexander Abkhazava. Daryanani set a 2m24.457s on a wet track to lead his team-mate by 0.215 seconds, and Drivex School’s Christopher Feghali was 1.193s off the pace in third.

Feghali and Jorge Garciarce are new additions to Drivex’s line-up for this week’s round, replacing Alessandro Famularo and Preston Lambert respectively. Famularo has decided to go to the Red Bull Ring this weekend to step up to Euroformula with BVM Racing, taking over the car that Lambert took to a podium finish last time out in July as a debutant.

Three weeks after that, Lambert had a crash in Eurocup-3’s most recent race at Assen and broke his right hand. That has not only ruled him out of this weekend’s round, but also the following one at Jerez on September 19-21. Drivex has already confirmed Garciarce will be in its line-up the rest of the season.

Lambert and Famularo are currently 25th and 27th in the Eurocup-3 standings, while Garciarce came 14th in USF Pro 2000 this year and Feghali is currently 13th in Spanish Formula 4. Earlier this year he was 10th in its winter championship.

It was dry by the time Eurocup-3’s second test session at Spa began this afternoon, and the pace was lowered to 2m13.382s by MP’s Maciej Gladysz. He had a 0.181s advantage over Campos Racing’s Ernesto Rivera, with Colnaghi 0.454s behind in third and team-mates Andres Cardenas and Emmo Fittipaldi completing a top five covered by 0.6s.

A further six Campos and MP drivers were within a second of the pace, with Sainteloc Racing’s Garrett Berry best of the rest in 12th.

He was fastest at first in practice, and traded top spot early on with Campos’s Enzo Tarnvanichkul, Fittipaldi and Palou Motorsport’s James Egozi.

Rinicella was first into the 2m14s, and was swiftly bettered by Fittipaldi. Gladysz and Rivera made small improvements to the benchmark laptime, then Rivera made further gains later on that brought him into the 2m13s.

Campos’s Jules Caranta set a 2m13.271s to beat him by 0.561s, but he only spent 10s in first place before Rinicella went quickest by 0.169s.

Rinicella went slower on his final lap, while Colnaghi and Rivera improved. Colnaghi set a 2m12.763s to comfortably go fastest, and Rivera got within 0.042s of Rinicella’s previous benchmark.

Free practice results

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Invicta Racing’s drivers are the chief beneficiaries of a penalty for Alex Dunne that has stripped him of his victory in Formula 2’s feature race at Spa-Francorchamps.

Dunne had won by 0.602 seconds over Campos Racing’s Arvid Lindblad, but both drivers got penalties post-race.

Not engaging the start set-up procedure at the beginning of the formation lap led to a 10-second penalty for Rodin Motorsport driver Dunne, demoting him to ninth, while running four of the wet weather tyres he used in the race below the minimum allowed pressure meant Lindblad was disqualified.

Lindblad was also reprimanded for passing through Invicta’s pit box prior to his pit stop.

ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins served a 10s penalty in the race, which put him out of contention to profit from the post-race penalties as he finished 9.17s behind Dunne, so it was Invicta’s Roman Stanek who benefited most as he rose from third to first place.

Martins’ team-mate Ritomo Miyata had already claimed a career-best result in fourth but now takes his maiden F2 podium in second, and Hitech GP’s Luke Browning rounds out the podium.

Leonardo Fornaroli rose from seventh to fifth due to the top two’s penalties, and it means he climbs up from third in the standings to the championship lead. He is three points ahead of MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor, with DAMS’ Jak Crawford a further six points back and Dunne now fourth in the standings after initially reclaiming the the title advantage with victory.

Lindblad also got a five-second penalty and a penalty point for contact in the sprint race, while his team was fined €2,000 (£1,748).

In FIA Formula 3’s sprint race, there were 40s of penalties handed out for track limits abuse.

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

McLaren junior Alex Dunne mastered treacherous conditions to win a slightly shortened Formula 2 feature race at Spa-Franchorchamps.

Several formation laps were completed behind the safety car before the race got underway with a rolling start.

Rodin Motorsport’s Dunne led away from pole, while Invicta Racing’s Roman Stanek snatched second from ART Grand Prix’s Ritomo Miyata into La Source.

Stanek got sideways one corner later at Eau Rouge, allowing Miyata to draw back alongside and reclaim the place at Les Combes. The pair’s squabble allowed Dunne to pull 1.8 seconds clear by the end of lap one.

Dunne slightly extended his advantage to 2.3s on the next tour but Miyata responded to close back in by 0.9s. The gap continued to come down, and by lap eight the top three were nose to tail.

Having been forced to defend from Miyata in turn one, Dunne then slightly edged away once more, and the pair made their mandatory pitstops on lap 13 – changing to a fresh set of wet tyres.

Stanek, who had pitted one lap earlier, jumped ahead of Miyata and challenged Dunne into Les Combes.

Dunne remained ahead, but he had a sketchy moment after catching the still-to-pit Oliver Goethe at the top of Raidillion as the rain intensified. After going side-by-side for several corners, Dunne swept around the outside of the MP Motorsport driver through Pouhon to reclaim the lead.

Goethe headed for the pitlane at the end of the lap, while Stanek was shuffled back to fourth by Miyata and Campos Racing’s Arvid Lindblad. Miyata soon spun on the exit of Pouhon, promoting Lindblad and Stanek to second and third.

Dunne built a four-second lead, but that was eradicated by the safety car when Prema’s Sebastian Montoya stopped following a high-speed spin at Eau Rouge.

Any hope of further racing action was ended by Goethe’s car stopping on circuit and catching fire, and red flags were brought out. Dunne therefore took victory and the points lead, with Lindlad and Stanek completing the podium.

Miyata finished a career-best fourth, and Hitech GP’s Luke Browning came home fifth courtesy of making early progress from 12th on the grid as he later spun at the exit of the pitlane following his pitstop.

Having been overtaken by Browning shortly before the late safety car period, Campos’s Pepe Marti finished sixth.

Sprint race winner Leonardo Fornaroli struggled early on and dropped out of the top 10, but he made a strong recovery following his pitstop to come home seventh and keep third in the standings.

Pre-race points leader Richard Verschoor made a second pitstop during the late safety car period and was classified 19th, one place behind Jak Crawford who was previously his main title rival.

Race results (19 laps)

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Wet conditions and two aborted starts resulted in the FIA Formula 3 Championship feature race at Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday being abandoned after two laps.

Torrential rain caused chaos just as drivers commenced their formation lap behind the safety car.

AIX Racing’s James Hedley spun but was able to get going again at Eau Rouge, and Prema’s Brando Badoer stopped with suspension damage after rear-ending MP Motorsport’s title contender Tim Tramnitz on the Kemmel Straight.

That led to a red flag, and the field rejoined the circuit following a 30-minute delay. The race eventually got underway behind the safety car, and despite that Campos Racing’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak still spun and became beached on a kerb.

Red flags were displayed once more, and officials announced that the race would not resume shortly after cars had returned to the pitlane. With just two laps completed, and both behind the safety car, it meant no points were awarded and the race was considered cancelled.

AIX Racing’s Brad Benavides would have been the winner of the non-championship encounter as he followed the safety car around from pole, with Trident’s Rafael Camara and Rodin Motorsport’s Callum Voisin second and third. Camara leaves the weekend with a 28-point lead in the championship over Campos’s Nikola Tsolov, who was seventh in the queue of cars.

Roman Bilinski (Rodin), Martinius Stenshorne (Hitech GP) and Ugo Ugochukwu (Prema) were ahead of him.

Formula 2 had a race cancelled earlier this year in Melbourne due to wet conditions and it was not rescheduled, but fellow Formula 1 support series F1 Academy did get one of its race-cancelled races reorganised to take place at another round.

Race results (2 laps)

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Leonardo Fornaroli followed up his maiden Formula 2 win with a second successive sprint race success at Spa-Francorchamps.

The Invicta Racing driver started third on the grid but leapt immediately to the lead on the short run to La Source down the inside of front row starters Oliver Goethe and Amaury Cordeel.

There was a costly incident further back for three several championship contenders who converged at the exit of the first corner, with Luke Browning becoming sandwiched between the championship leader Richard Verschoor and second-placed Jak Crawford, who had all qualified outside of the top 10.

The ensuing contact sent both Browning and Crawford immediately off into the gravel, with only Crawford able to continue, before Verschoor spun in Eau Rouge – blaming a fluid leak from sidepod damage which caused him to retire to the pits.

Fornaroli kept the lead after a safety car restart but had to defend two laps later from Rodin Motorsport driver Cordeel, who had set the fastest lap on the previous tour. Fornaroli responded with a fastest lap of his own and soon began to break away out front.

Goethe caught Cordeel but had to catch a big moment at the top of Raidillon and did well to keep hold of third place ahead of Victor Martins. A lap later he went wide over the kerb in the same place and couldn’t prevent Martins from going by.

Three laps later, Martins made a clean move around the outside of Les Combes on Cordeel, who didn’t leave enough space and found himself going off into the gravel, triggering another safety car.

Behind the podium runners, the vast majority opted to pit for fresh soft tyres with only fifth-placed Gabriele Mini and backmarker Cian Shields continuing to join the top three in staying on medium rubber, and vulnerable to those behind at the restart.

Five laps still remained when racing resumed. Mini quickly passed Goethe for third while Pepe Marti – the leading runner on softs – made quick work of Shields, followed closely by Roman Stanek and Alex Dunne.

Marti struggled to make further progress and pass Goethe however, allowing Dunne and Stanek to begin fighting with him instead.

Sami Meguetounif coming to a stop on the Kemmel Straight on the penultimate lap meant that the race would end under safety car.

Race results (18 laps)

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Mercedes Formula 1 junior Noah Stromsted scored his first FIA Formula 3 win by a commanding margin in the Spa-Francorchamps sprint race.

Freddie Slater, starting just his third race in the championship, had reversed-grid pole and retained the lead at the start ahead of fellow front row starter Stromsted.

Trident driver Stromsted kept the pressure on and passed the Hitech driver for the lead at Les Combes on lap three, and pulled away into the distance.

Stromsted ultimately took victory by six seconds over Ugo Ugochukwu, who charged from seventh on the grid to claim his maiden podium.

The Prema-run McLaren junior had already climbed up to third by lap four past Charlie Wurz, and took second away from Slater three laps later.

Slater’s hopes of a second sprint race podium in as many F3 outings were ended when Trident’s Wurz came past him for third a lap later.

He was then swallowed on the following tour by Martinius Stenshorne, Nikola Tsolov and Rafael Camara having run wide in Eau Rouge while battling the trio.

Relative to his team-mates, championship leader Camara had a cautious start to the race from 11th on the grid and ran off track at Les Combes on the opening lap, but managed to follow championship rival Tsolov through the order later on.

Both would overtake Stenshorne to climb into fourth and fifth but couldn’t deny Wurz his maiden F3 podium.

Race results (12 laps)

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Brad Benavides claimed an unexpected FIA Formula 3 pole position at Spa-Francorchamps to deny points leader Rafael Camara.

Trident driver Camara set the early pace, posting a 2m05.557s on his first flying lap that put him 0.234s ahead of nearest rival, Ugo Ugochukwu.

While Camara headed to the pits, others managed to improve with a second attempt on the same set of tyres, with Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and Alessandro Giusti gaining second and third and closing the gap to Camara.

Van Amersfoort Racing meanwhile tried something different with all three of its drivers staying out on track longer. Santiago Ramos went second to Camara before Theophile Nael then posted a 2m05.508s to take top spot with just over 10 minutes left on the clock.

With the rest of the field returning to the track on fresh rubber, a flurry of faster times followed that pushed Nael all the way down to 22nd.

One of the first to cross the line was Benavides with a 2m04.253s, some 1.255s quicker than Nael’s previous benchmark. The AIX Racing driver has scored just once in 10 races since his return to F3 but did qualifying second at the Red Bull Ring.

Camara could only manage second place in response, 0.106s down. He briefly had that time deleted for exceeding track limits at Pouhon, demoting him to 23rd, only for it to be quickly reinstated once more.

A traffic jam followed on the subsequent cooldown lap with nobody wanting to head the field and give their rivals a tow. While most did get to attempt another lap, hardly anybody improved upon their times.

The Rodin duo of Callum Voisin and Roman Bilinski therefore took third and fourth, in front of Hitech’s Martinius Stenshorne and Prema’s Uogo Ugochukwu. Nikola Tsolov was seventh for Campos Racing.

Freddie Slater was 12th on his second F3 outing, securing reversed-grid pole for the sprint race.

Nael returned to the track on new tyres for one flying lap at the chequered flag but couldn’t improve his position and ended up 23rd.

Qualifying results

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