Ernesto Rivera made a late move for the lead on Freddie Slater, securing victory in the Formula 3 Feature Race at the Belgian Grand Prix weekend.
Slater was lining up on pole, desperately looking for his maiden F3 victory. However, Tuukka Taponen lined up alongside him, also looking to take the lead.
Slater struggled off the line, dropping through the order into the first corner, allowing Taponen to sweep into the lead. But he wasn’t secure in the lead as Hiyu Yamakoshi got ahead of Taponen on the straight.
Before the end of the first lap, a Safety Car was brought out after Yevan David took a run through the gravel, getting stuck.
Theophile Nael came into the pits after picking up front wing damage and a puncture after running into the back of Taito Kato.
Yamakoshi held the lead
Under the Safety Car restart, Yamakoshi had a strong restart, but had a slight slide, which allowed Taponen and Slater to close the gap down to just 0.4 seconds between the top three.
Salter was closing the gap into Lap 7, getting back into second with ease past Taponen, and he set his sights on Yamakoshi in the lead. The next lap, Slater had the DRS coming into the Kemmel Straight, breezing past the Van Amersfoort Racing driver and moving back into the lead.
However, the battle wasn’t over yet as the change now allowed Yamakoshi the DRS while Slater did not.
The VAR driver looked down Slater’s inside but was not close enough to get ahead. Behind Yamakoshi, he had himself under pressure from Ernesto Rivera, who had made it past Taponen and was looking to take second place.
In the same lap, Rivera got ahead of Yamakoshi and was closing the gap to Slater, with just 0.4 seconds between the leader and the Campos driver.
Slater was forced to defend from Rivera as the duo went into the corner side by side. However, Slater held the position vitally.
Ugochukwu falling back
Further down the order, Ugo Ugochukwu, the championship leader, had made up three places, just putting himself in the final points positions. It was a struggle for the Campos driver, who continues to drop through the order, slipping to 13th.
Rivera was finally close enough on Lap 12, using his DRS to get ahead of Slater down the straight. The Campos driver was able to put his food down and build the gap between them to over a second. Pushing Slater out of the DRS range by the time the duo reached the bus stop chicane.
By Lap 13, the gap was 1.3 seconds. However, that wasn’t the biggest issue for Slater as he was under pressure from Yamakoshi, who lunged down the inside of the Brit and took second place.
Slater’s tyres looked as though they were graining significantly more than the field around him, which was pushing him into the front wings of Colnaghi and Maciej Gladysz.
Ugochukwu was falling further through the order, dropping to 19th in the final laps. However, with Slater under pressure, the Campos driver would retain his championship lead.
Rivera took the chequered flag with his second victory in the 2026 season, with Yamamkoshi and Slater completing the podium. Slater’s result put him just one point away from Ugochukwu in the Drivers’ Championship.
Colnaghi and Gladysz completed the top five. Kato and Taponen ended the Feature in sixth and seventh, with Nakamura, Guisti and Brando Badoer completing the point scorers.
Discussion about this post