Roundup of the third round of the 2025 F3 season as the grid touched down in Imola, Italy.
Ferrari Driver Academy member, Rafael Camara came into this round as the championship leader looking to extend his title lead over Tim Tramnitz as F3 began the European leg of the season.
Practice
Van Amersfoort Racing’s (VAR) Theophile Nael, Santiago Ramos and Ivan Domingues were first on track and it was Nael who set the initial benchmark time of 2m 02.815 in the eighth minute, which he soon lowered to a more representative 1m 37.246 on his next lap.
Lap times soon tumbled as Domingues and Nicola Lacorte twice went fastest in a busy opening stint once everyone hit the track, until championship leader – Camara went quickest with 1m 33,433 in the 25th minute.
He went on to twice lower his own benchmark to an eventual 1m 33.091 ahead of MP Motorsport’s Alessandro Giusti and Tramnitz.
The session however came to a premature end with three minutes left after PREMA’s Ugo Ugochukwu spun out at Variante Villeneuve.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Rafael Camara | Trident | 1m 33.091 |
| 2 | Alessandro Giusti | MP Motorsport | + 0.074 |
| 3 | Tim Tramnitz | MP Motorsport | + 0.516 |
| 4 | Callum Voisin | Rodin | + 0.546 |
| 5 | Mari Boya | Campos | + 0.567 |
| 6 | Roman Bilinski | Rodin | + 0.573 |
| 7 | Noel Leon | PREMA | + 0.631 |
| 8 | James Hedley | AIX Racing | + 0.692 |
| 9 | Bruno Del Pino | MP Motorsport | + 0.732 |
| 10 | Charlie Wurz | Trident | + 0.744 |
| 11 | Noah Strømsted | Trident | + 0.758 |
| 12 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos | + 0.785 |
| 13 | Brando Badoer | PREMA | + 0.840 |
| 14 | Theophile Nael | VAR | + 0.855 |
| 15 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | Campos | + 0.856 |
| 16 | Martinius Stenshorne | Hitech GP | + 0.862 |
| 17 | Louis Sharp | Rodin | + 0.883 |
| 18 | Ugo Ugochukwu | PREMA | + 0.950 |
| 19 | Laurens van Hoepen | ART GP | + 1.106 |
| 20 | Santiago Ramos | VAR | + 1.365 |
| 21 | Tuukka Taponen | ART GP | + 1.407 |
| 22 | Ivan Domingues | VAR | + 1.481 |
| 23 | Nicola Lacorte | DAMS | + 1.513 |
| 24 | Gerard Xie | Hitech GP | + 1.730 |
| 25 | Brad Benavides | AIX Racing | + 1.842 |
| 26 | Nicola Marinangeli | AIX Racing | + 1.876 |
| 27 | Christian Ho | DAMS | + 1.895 |
| 28 | Matias Zagazeta | DAMS | + 1.908 |
| 29 | Joshua Dufek | Hitech GP | + 2.023 |
| 30 | James Wharton | ART GP | No Time |
Qualifying
Nael, Ramos and Domingues were once again the first drivers on track with Nael setting 1m 34.158 as the initial representative benchmark in the sixth minute, before Ramos and Tramnitz replaced him until Camara produced 1m 32.909 to top the opening run from Badoer and Tramnitz.
The start of the second run however were brought to a halt with 11 minutes and eight seconds left after Campos’ Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak spun out at Acque Minerali, but not before Badoer posted 1m 32.894 to go onto provisional pole.
After a six-minute delay, the session resumed and Ramos delivered 1m 32.442 with just five minutes left, but Camara fought back in the penultimate minute with 1m 32.206 to become the first F3 driver to take pole in the first three rounds, having opted to do his final run later than everyone else.
Ramos settled for second ahead of Strømsted, Taponen, Sharp, Bilinski, Ugochukwu, Leon, Tsolov, Boya, Tramnitz and Del Pino who took reverse-pole for the sprint.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Rafael Camara | Trident | 1m 32.206 |
| 2 | Santiago Ramos | VAR | + 0.236 |
| 3 | Noah Strømsted | Trident | + 0.244 |
| 4 | Tuukka Taponen | ART GP | + 0.327 |
| 5 | Louis Sharp | Rodin | + 0.359 |
| 6 | Roman Bilinski | Rodin | + 0.373 |
| 7 | Ugo Ugochukwu | PREMA | + 0.381 |
| 8 | Noel Leon | PREMA | + 0.406 |
| 9 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos | + 0.430 |
| 10 | Mari Boya | Campos | + 0.504 |
| 11 | Tim Tramnitz | MP Motorsport | + 0.572 |
| 12 | Bruno Del Pino | MP Motorsport | + 0.574 |
| 13 | Alessandro Giusti | MP Motorsport | + 0.586 |
| 14 | Brad Benavides | AIX Racing | + 0.673 |
| 15 | Brando Badoer | PREMA | + 0.688 |
| 16 | Martinius Stenshorne | Hitech GP | + 0.722 |
| 17 | Laurens van Hoepen | ART GP | + 0.773 |
| 18 | Nicola Lacorte | DAMS | + 0.836 |
| 19 | Joshua Dufek | Hitech GP | + 0.881 |
| 20 | James Wharton | ART GP | + 0.890 |
| 21 | Theophile Nael | VAR | + 0.971 |
| 22 | Callum Voisin | Rodin | + 1.014 |
| 23 | James Hedley | AIX Racing | + 1.075 |
| 24 | Ivan Domingues | VAR | + 1.164 |
| 25 | Christian Ho | DAMS | + 1.269 |
| 26 | Matias Zagazeta | DAMS | + 1.300 |
| 27 | Gerrard Xie | Hitech GP | + 1.388 |
| 28 | Charlie Wurz | Trident | + 1.656 |
| 29 | Nicola Marinangeli | AIX Racing | + 1.715 |
| 30 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | Campos | + 33.325 |
Sprint Race
At lights out, Del Pino led Tramnitz as the top 13 held position whilst Domingues got spun at the back but everyone continued safely.
Up front, Tramnitz kept his Spanish teammate honest until he swept round the outside of Tamburello on Lap 3 to snatch the lead, which he controlled until the safety car came out on Lap 5 after Marinangeli had stopped at Tosa a lap earlier after he lost his rear-right tyre.
Racing resumed at the end of Lap 8 but Boya lost third to Tsolov into Tamburello at the start of the next lap with Sharp following through, before a power issue forced Boya to drop down the order and retire in the pits at the end of that lap.
The safety car meanwhile had been redeployed after Voisin spun Zagazeta out at Tamburello which earned the Brit a five-second time penalty, despite failing to score any points as he eventually finished 26th in the classification.
Tramnitz led everyone back racing at the end of Lap 11 in a quiet restart until Taponen squeezed Leon wide on the outside of Tosa for seventh on Lap 14, which dropped the Mexican down to tenth whilst Taponen lost seventh to Strømsted on Lap 16 into Tamburello.
Tramnitz eventually cruised to victory from Del Pino after he gave his teammate a tow to prevent third-placed Tsolov from getting past the Spaniard.
Sharp, Bilinski, Strømsted, Taponen, Ugochukwu, Leon and Giusti rounded out the top ten.
Tramnitz’s win now put him 16 points off Camara in the drivers’ standings after the latter missed out on points in 11th position, whilst Strømsted remained third and 23 points off the title lead on 33 points.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Tim Tramnitz | MP Motorsport | 18 | 33m 26.398 |
| 2 | Bruno Del Pino | MP Motorsport | 18 | + 0.782 |
| 3 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos | 18 | + 1.187 |
| 4 | Louis Sharp | Rodin | 18 | + 2.088 |
| 5 | Roman Bilinski | Rodin | 18 | + 3.328 |
| 6 | Noah Strømsted | Trident | 18 | + 4.257 |
| 7 | Tuukka Taponen | ART GP | 18 | + 6.966 |
| 8 | Ugo Ugochukwu | PREMA | 18 | + 8.206 |
| 9 | Noel Leon | PREMA | 18 | + 8.502 |
| 10 | Alessandro Giusti | MP Motorsport | 18 | +8.829 |
| 11 | Rafael Camara | Trident | 18 | + 9.298 |
| 12 | Brad Benavides | AIX Racing | 18 | + 10.577 |
| 13 | Martinius Stenshorne | Hitech GP | 18 | + 11.014 |
| 14 | Joshua Dufek | Hitech GP | 18 | + 11.578 |
| 15 | Nicola Lacorte | DAMS | 18 | + 12.656 |
| 16 | Brando Badoer | PREMA | 18 | + 16.172 |
| 17 | Laurens van Hoepen | ART GP | 18 | + 16.386 |
| 18 | James Hedley | AIX Racing | 18 | + 16.850 |
| 19 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | Campos | 18 | + 17.178 |
| 20 | Theophile Nael | VAR | 18 | +17.335 |
| 21 | Christian Ho | DAMS | 18 | +17.746 |
| 22 | James Wharton | ART GP | 18 | + 18.059 |
| 23 | Charlie Wurz | Trident | 18 | + 18.302 |
| 24 | Gerrard Xie | Hitech GP | 18 | + 18.597 |
| 25 | Ivan Domingues | VAR | 18 | + 19.342 |
| 26 | Callum Voisin | Rodin | 18 | + 28.870 |
| 27 | Santiago Ramos | Trident | 17 | + 1 Lap |
| RET | Mari Boya | Campos | 9 | Power |
| RET | Matias Zagazeta | DAMS | 8 | Collision |
| RET | Nicola Marinangeli | AIX Racing | 3 | Tyre |
Feature Race
Camara made a clean start but Ramos managed to match the Brazilian and swept round the outside of Tamburello for the lead, whilst Taponen and Sharp cleared Strømsted for third and fourth respectively.
DAMS’ Nicola Lacorte meanwhile was slow off the line from 18th and dropped to the back of the order.
Up front, Camara bided his time and cleared Ramos on the outside of Tamburello for the lead on Lap 4 whilst Strømsted cleared Sharp on Lap 6 then Taponen on Lap 10 to recover third.
Further back inside the top ten, Boya immediately cleared Tsolov for ninth at the start and steadily worked his way up to fifth in the closing half of the race, after Bilinski had initially passed Sharp for fifth before the Rodin pair got demoted a position by Boya into the clutches of Tramnitz.
Up front, Camara survived a virtual safety car on Lap 12 after Domingues got spun out by Benavides at Tamburello a lap earlier, but Ramos stuck to the rear of his Trident until he made a Lap 19 overtake into Tamburello on the outside to resume the lead.
Camara then released Strømsted into second later on that lap to hunt down Ramos but the Mexican clung on for his first F3 Feature Race win, as Strømsted finished second ahead of Camara who rounded out the podium.
Taponen, Boya, Tramnitz, Giusti, Bilinski, Tsolov and Van Hoepen rounded out the top ten.
Camara remained top of the standings as his title lead extended to 22 points ahead of teammate, Strømsted who jumped up to second ahead of Tramnitz and Taponen, whilst Ramos’ win propelled him up to fifth.
F3 now heads to Monaco for the second round of a triple-header from 22-25 May.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Santiago Ramos | VAR | 22 | 35m 28.588 |
| 2 | Noah Strømsted | Trident | 22 | + 0.277 |
| 3 | Rafael Camara | Trident | 22 | + 6.838 |
| 4 | Tuukka Taponen | ART GP | 22 | + 8.540 |
| 5 | Mari Boya | Campos | 22 | + 13.713 |
| 6 | Tim Tramnitz | MP Motorsport | 22 | + 14.887 |
| 7 | Alessandro Giusti | MP Motorsport | 22 | + 15.268 |
| 8 | Roman Bilinski | Rodin | 22 | + 16.315 |
| 9 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos | 22 | + 16.727 |
| 10 | Laurens van Hoepen | ART GP | 22 | + 17.829 |
| 11 | Martinius Stenshorne | Hitech GP | 22 | + 20.516 |
| 12 | Louis Sharp | Rodin | 22 | + 21.667 |
| 13 | James Wharton | ART GP | 22 | + 26.453 |
| 14 | Ugo Ugochukwu | PREMA | 22 | + 27.074 |
| 15 | Joshua Dufek | Hitech GP | 22 | + 27.345 |
| 16 | Charlie Wurz | Trident | 22 | + 27.853 |
| 17 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | Campos | 22 | + 29.857 |
| 18 | Callum Voisin | Rodin | 22 | + 34.266 |
| 19 | Brando Badoer | PREMA | 22 | + 35.516 |
| 20 | Gerrard Xie | Hitech GP | 22 | + 35.885 |
| 21 | Christian Ho | DAMS | 22 | + 36.307 |
| 22 | Matias Zagazeta | DAMS | 22 | + 37.379 |
| 23 | James Hedley | AIX Racing | 22 | + 37.894 |
| 24 | Brad Benavides | AIX Racing | 22 | + 41.212 |
| 25 | Nicola Lacorte | DAMS | 22 | + 42.526 |
| 26 | Theophile Nael | VAR | 22 | + 69.330 |
| 27 | Bruno Del Pino | MP Motorsport | 22 | + 73.930 |
| 28 | Noel Leon | PREMA | 21 | + 1 Lap |
| RET | Ivan Domingues | VAR | 10 | Collision |
| RET | Nicola Marinangeli | AIX Racing | 6 | Tyre |