Freddie Slater prevails through safety car chaos to secure F3 Feature Race win in Hungary

Credit: Formula 3 via X

Freddie Slater held off championship rival Ugo Ugochukwu to claim his maiden Formula 3 victory in a strong drive amidst several safety cars being called during the race.

How it happened

As lights went out at the Hungaroring, the 30-car grid charged down into Turn 1. Tuukka Taponen’s historic pole position was maintained as the Finnish driver held a strong launch off the start. As the opening lap continued, championship leader Ugochukwu made surged up the field making his way up to fifth.

Just before Lap 2, in the final corners of Lap 1 a yellow flag was called as a collision between Maciej Gladysz, Gerrard Xie and Jin Nakamura that saw the end to all their races.

Contact into Turn 12 between Tridents Freddie Slater and Taponen forced the MP driver into the pits. Taponen lost the race lead but remained in the top ten in seventh.

Into Lap 4, a safety car was deployed to clear the track of debris. At this stage Slater led the field with Mattia Colnaghi and Brando Badoer behind.

Lap 6 signalled race restart, however racing was short lived as AIX driver Salim Hanna came to a stop prior to the final corner. With the track obstructed due to the incident, a virtual safety car was called once again.

In Lap 8 with DRS enabled, Red Bull backed driver Ernesto Rivera was gaining quickly on Nicola Lacorte ahead. Whilst Rivera made a few attempts, he was unsuccessful.

Meanwhile up the front of the field it was Ugochukwu who made an bold move into Hamilton corner landing a double overtake on Colnaghi and Badoer ahead. It was now neck and neck between the two championship leaders with Slater still in the lead.

In Lap 11, an optimistic move from yesterday’s Sprint Race winner Theophile Nael on Colnaghi nearly the Campos diver run off into the gravel.

As the halfway mark approached the battle between Ugochukwu and Slater remained tense as it was wheel-to-wheel round every turn.

In Lap 13 the third yellow flag of the race was announced as Kanato Le faced a technical issue and therefore had to pull over to the side of the track, marking the end of his race. A virtual safety car was deployed toward the end of the lap.

As racing resumed in Lap 14 most of the grid got away cleanly however, a slight mistake from MP driver Alessandro Giusti saw him fall down the order to 19^th.

In Lap 15 a collision from Fernando Barrichello on teammate Yevan David and MP Motorsports’ Enzo Deligny saw the fourth yellow flag called for the race, and promptly the fourth safety car of the day was deployed. Both Barrichello and Deligny were out of the race, and David dropped to the back of the field.

In Lap 17 the safety car was announced to be ending, and it was back green for the final quarter of the race. Slater had a strong restart creating an advantage over rival Ugochukwu. Meanwhile, an aggressive move from Nael saw Taponen forced wide.

In Lap 21, the battle between Nael and Taponen continued with another close call as the two went wheel-to-wheel round Turn 2.

Into Lap 22, Ugochukwu found pace on his rival ahead, and it was a close fight between the championship leaders on what would decide who would be on top for the summer break.

In the final lap Ugochukwu continued to gain on Slater however, a strong drive from Slater continued allowing him to remain in the lead as he crossed the line to take his maiden win in Hungary.

He was followed by Ugochukwu in second and Badoer in third to round out the podium. Colnaghi and Nael took fourth and fifth respectively.

What’s next

With Slater now leading the championship, the 2026 Formula 3 season will continue after the summer break in Monza for Round 8 from 4-6 of September.