From starting P8 to finishing in P5 and valuable series ship points, Kiwi driver Louis sharp had his best outing so far for the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship season at the Imola Circuit in Italy on Saturday.
“Pleased to be fighting up front in my debut race at the Imola circuit,” said Sharp. “Big thanks to the Rodin Motorsport team—eyes forward for more tomorrow’s Feature Race.”
Tim Tramnitz claimed a second Formula 3 victory with a strong drive to the top in the Imola Sprint Race, while also leading an MP Motorsport one-two finish, with Bruno del Pino finishing in second.
The German driver overtook his rookie teammate early in the 18-lap event before controlling things from the front to claim the win, as Nikola Tsolov rounded out the podium for Campos Racing.
AS IT HAPPENED
It was as you were at the start, with pole-sitter del Pino keeping teammate Tramnitz behind, while Mari Boya stayed in third ahead of fellow Campos driver Tsolov in fourth.
In fifth, Noel León was coming under threat from PREMA Racing teammate Ugo Ugochukwu, as well Rodin Motorsport rookie Louis Sharp at the end of the opening lap.
Tramnitz made the DRS count at the start of Lap 3 to take the lead from del Pino at the entry of Turn 2.
Moments later, Ugochukwu overtook León at the same corner for fifth, but he soon dropped to sixth as Sharp completed a double overtake on both PREMA drivers at the exit of Turn 4.
A Virtual Safety Car soon turned into a full Safety Car on Lap 5, as AIX Racing’s Nicola Marinangeli stopped on track at the exit of Tosa with a wheel off his car.
Racing resumed at the start of Lap 9 of 18 and it was a good restart for the MP top two as they built up a 1.8s lead. Boya was struggling through and dropped from P3 to out of the points before another Safety Car came out.
The Spaniard retired to the pit lane, while the marshals cleared Matías Zagazeta’s DAMS Lucas Oil car from the gravel at Tamburello, following an incident with Callum Voisin. The Rodin driver was later handed a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision.
Tramnitz once again had a good restart while del Pino held off Tsolov in the battle for second as Sharp kept a watching brief from P4.
The DRS was enabled at the start of Lap 14 of 18 and del Pino was using it, not only to pull away from Tsolov, but also to close in on Tramnitz down the Main Straight.
León had a scruffy lap as he ran wide at the exit of Turn 7 in a battle with Tuukka Taponen for seventh, dropping him to P9 behind Noah Stromsted.
Roman Bilinski, now in P6, was showing tremendous pace, setting the fastest time of the race on Lap 15, which brought him right onto the back of Ugochukwu.
The Rodin driver was not close enough into Turn 2 to make a move, but behind him Stromsted was to take P7 from Taponen at the same corner.
Onto the penultimate lap and Ugochukwu ran wide and into the gravel at the entry to Acqua Minerali, dropping him from fifth to eighth.
Tramnitz though had managed the race perfectly and crossed the line to take victory in the Imola Sprint as del Pino made it a first one-two finish in Formula 3 for MP Motorsport.
Tsolov wound up third ahead of the Rodin pairing of Sharp and Bilinski, while Stromsted’s late charge ended with him in P6 ahead of Taponen. Ugochukwu and León were eighth and ninth respectively for PREMA, as MP’s Alessandro Giusti rounded out the top 10.
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