After coming away from the opening round of the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship in Melbourne with three points after an eighth-place finish in the Sprint Race, Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov, dominated the opening day of the Sakhir F3 in-season tests, beating ART Grand Prix’s Tuukka Taponen to the top of the timesheets in both the morning and afternoon sessions.
Ugochukwu sets early benchmark
After completing their installation laps, the drivers took to the track to set their first representative laps, with PREMA Racing’s Ugo Ugochukwu setting the early benchmark, beating his teammate Noel León to the top of the timesheets. Ugochukwu, a member of the McLaren Driver Development Programme, put in an early fastest lap of 1:49.397, beating León by 0.282 seconds.
The PREMA Racing duo, however, dropped to third and fourth as the first hour of testing neared its end. Rodin Motorsport’s Roman Bilinski, who recently finished third in the F3 Melbourne Sprint Race, went top with 1:49.853, 0.053 seconds ahead of his teammate Louis Sharp, who claimed second.
Tsolov beats Taponen to top time of morning session
As the drivers entered the final hour of the morning session, Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov went top, setting a 1:49.336. The Bulgarian Lion was almost two-tenths faster than ART Grand Prix and Ferrari Driver Academy’s Tuuka Taponen. Though TRIDENT’s Rafael Câmara—winner of the 2025 Melbourne F3 Round Feature Race—attempted another fast lap soon after, he could not compete with Tsolov, and ultimately slotted into P3, 0.492 seconds behind Tsolov.
This was the last change to the timesheets for the morning session on the first day of the F3 in-season tests in Bahrain. In the end, Tsolov, Taponen, and Câmara remained the top 3, with ART Grand Prix’s Laurens van Hoepen in fourth. Rodin Motorsport’s Rodin Bilinski and Louis Sharp, who had briefly held on to the 1-2, finished fifth and sixth respectively, ahead of PREMA Racing’s Ugo Ugochukwu in seventh, and the Campos Racing duo of Mari Boya and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak in eighth and ninth. Rodin Motorsport’s Rodin Motorsport rounded out the top 10.
A busy start to the afternoon session
After a relatively slow morning session, the afternoon session of the first day of F3 in-season testing got off to a busy start with all teams except Hitech TGR sending their drivers out at the start of the session. This time, however, it was with TRIDENT which set the early pace, claiming a 1-2-3 in the opening minutes of the session. Having finished the morning session third, Câmara set the early benchmark of 1:50.062, ahead of his teammates Charlie Wurz and Noah Strømsted.
However, they soon relinquished their hold on the top, with DAMS Lucas Oli’s Christian Ho lowering the benchmark to 1:49.917. The Singaporean driver finished 0.104 seconds ahead of teammate Nicola Lacorte, before improving to a 1:49.913 soon after. Lacorte, however, soon dropped to P3, with Hitech TGR’s Martinius Stenshorne going second with 1:49.921.
Tsolov beats Ramos and Taponen to top time of afternoon
As the drivers entered the final 45 minutes of the session, fierce competition emerged for the spot at the top of the timesheets, with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Santiago Ramos, who won the 2025 F3 Melbourne Round Sprint Race, Tsolov and Taponen each taking turns at the top. Ultimately, it was Tsolov who claimed P1 with 1:48.901, finishing 0.014 seconds ahead of Taponen.
With MP Motorsport’s Alessandro Giusti bringing the Red Flags with less than four minutes left, Tsolov finished the session ahead of his rivals. Taponen settled for second, ahead of Boya in third. Stenshorne finished fourth, ahead of Giusti in fifth, and his Hitech TGR teammate Joshua Dufek in sixth. Voisin finished seventh, ahead of MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz in eighth, and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Théophile Naël, who finished the F3 Melbourne Round Feature Race third, in ninth. Finally, AIX Racing’s Freddie Slater rounded out the top 10.
With the opening day of pre-season testing complete, the drivers will return to the track on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. local time.
