Santiago Ramos redeems himself with brilliant Imola victory

Written By Trisha Lynnette

Credit: Formula 3 via X

The Feature Race took place on the 18th May 2025, in Imola at 8:30 AM CEST (6:30 AM GMT), with Santiago Ramos of Van Amersfoort Racing, taking the win. Noah Strømsted of Trident took P2, followed by his teammate and championship leader - Rafael Câmara in P3.

It was a brand new day at Imola as drivers lined up on the circuit, surrounded by their engineers with last minute words of strategy and encouragement. Formation Lap began as drivers warmed their tyres, slowly weaving through the track. 

The drivers were in their positions and it was time to race. Lap 1 began with Ramos and Câmara having a good start over the line. Ramos managed to take the lead as Câmara tried to regain his position. Tuukka Taponen of ART Grand Prix managed to move to third position. In the midfield there were multiple attempts of overtakes as a few drivers managed to switch their positions. 

Strømsted moved to P5, behind Louis Sharp of Rodin Motorsport and Taponen. Théophile Naël of Van Amersfoort Racing (VAR) entered the pits as he reported a puncture. Once his car was fixed he joined the circuit at P30, last in the entire grid. Seven tenths of a second separated the Trident and VAR driver and Taponen faced pressure from Sharp. 

Câmara was three tenths of a second away from Ramos in lap 3. He tried to use Drag Reduction System (DRS) to overtake the driver at that point but to no avail. Once they were down the start-finish straight Câmara gained speed and was able to overtake, taking P1 from Ramos. 

Nikola Tsolov of Campos Racing had a bit of a lock up while his teammate Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak had a bit of contact with Matías Zagazeta of DAMS Racing. 

Lap 5 and Câmara set the fastest lap and maintained nine tenths of a gap between Ramos. Taponen also started to utilise his DRS to pressure Ramos. Meanwhile Sharp was overtaken by Strømsted. Tsolov and Tramnitz battled it out a bit further in the grid for P10 but Tramnitz managed to defend well.

Credit: Formula 3 via X

Nicola Marinangeli of AIX Racing entered the pits as the front corner of the car was reported to be damaged, this resulted in his early retirement. Strømsted took the fastest lap in lap 8 and maintained that till the end of the race. Brando Badoer was under pressure from Laurens Van Hoepen of ART Grand Prix who overtook the PREMA driver and reached P14. The rest of the field were separated from the top two by two and half seconds as they entered lap 9. 

Badoer had a bit of a lockup and dropped his wheel in the gravel, but bounced back immediately. Taponen was under pressure from Strømsted as DRS was enabled for the Trident driver. Roman Bilinski of Rodin Motorsport managed to overtake his teammate Sharp, who dropped to P6 and faced a bit of pressure from Ugo Ugochukwu of PREMA Racing. Alessandro Giusti of MP Motorsport overtook Tsolov who simultaneously had contact with Bruno Del Pino. Del Pino’s front wing faced damage which slowed him down.

Ivan Domingues of VAR had tumbled down the order. He came to a stop as the yellow flag was waved. The gap between the top two was reduced to two tenths of a second, Câmara felt all the pressure from Ramos. Domingues was shown exiting his car, a replay of his contact with Brad Benavides of AIX Racing, which caused him to spin off track. This incident was noted by the stewards.

Green flag was waved as drivers began to speed up on the track, Ramos immediately inched closer to Câmara who slowly pulled away. Mari Boya of Campos Racing who was at P6 began to inch closer to Bilinski, in the hopes of a higher position and points. Tramnitz set his target to the two Rodin Motorsport cars ahead of him as he tried to utilise his pace. Giusti tried to get a move done on Ugochukwu as he went for DRS, but wasn’t able to do so. 

Ramos didn’t have DRS open as they moved into the braking zone indicating that he had closed his DRS fairly early, seated steady behind Câmara. Further behind, Van Hoepen came from 17th to 12th as he tried to climb up into the points. James Wharton of ART Grand Prix overtook Charlie Wurz of Trident on the start-finish straight, which brought him to P14. 

Tramnitz closed in on Sharp and overtook the Australian driver, reaching P5. James Hedly of AIX Racing ran wide as he dropped his wheel in the gravel. A bit of graining was seen on the front right tyre of Câmara.

Credit: Formula 3 via X

Ramos continued to show tactical play at this point in the race as he silently waited behind Câmara, with his DRS closed. Ramos maintained his distance as well, clearly showing what could be his strategy at the moment. He calmly waited for the time to come when he could overtake. Lap 19 and down the start-finish, Ramos opened his DRS as he passed by Câmara and took back the race lead with great speed. 

By lap 21, Câmara and Strømsted had a small battle for P2 as Câmara fell away in pace. Benavides received a ten second penalty for his earlier collision with Domingues that led to the VAR driver’s retirement. Benavides also had a small collision with Charlie Wurz that was noted by the stewards. 

Strømsted had managed to move into P2 as Câmara dropped to P3. At the back of the grid Giusti fought with his teammate Tramnitz for a higher position. They both managed to take over Bilinski who fell down to P8. 

In lap 21, drivers were out of the Rivazza and down the start-finish straight. As Strømsted was a second away from Ramos, he got his DRS enabled. The Mexican driver was under immense pressure from Strømsted but he was able to defend himself as they drove the last lap of the race.

Nicola Lacorte of DAMS Racing  ran wide in the final few moments of the race. In the meantime Callum Voisin of Rodin and Gerrard Xie of Hitech had a tussle which caused Xie to run wide as well.

Strømsted was only two tenths of a second away from the 21-year-old driver and had there been one more lap, he could have managed to overtake Ramos and win the race. Unfortunately for him and Trident, they had to settle for P2 and P3. 

Credit: Formula 3 via X

The 21-year-old Mexican crossed the finish line as he brought home his first Feature Race win for VAR at Imola. This marked the second win for VAR at Imola, after Franco Colapinto’s Sprint Race win in 2022. This also marked Ramos’ second win in the 2025 season.

Ramos showed clear mastery and excellence at Imola, having utilised his prior experience and a strategy that brought him the win today. Last year Ramos was on pole position at Imola for Trident but ultimately placed only 10th in the race. This year he has brought the win to VAR, taking away the chances of a complete sweep from championship leader Câmara and Trident.

That wraps up an exciting and unexpected race weekend here at Imola. Next week we head to the streets of Monaco, a circuit renowned for its unforgiving challenge and status in motorsport.

Make sure to catch next week live and if you can’t, don’t worry! Head back over to DIVEBOMB for all the action you might’ve missed.

Full Classification for Formula 3 Feature Race at Imola

P1	Santiago Ramos	Van Amersfoort Racing
P2	Noah Strømsted	TRIDENT
P3	Rafael Câmara	TRIDENT
P4	Tuukka Taponen	ART Grand Prix
P5	Mari Boya	Campos Racing
P6	Tim Tramnitz	MP Motorsport
P7	Alessandro Giusti	MP Motorsport
P8	Roman Bilinski	Rodin Motorsport
P9	Nikola Tsolov	Campos Racing
P10	Laurens Van Hoepen	ART Grand Prix
P11	Martinius Stenshorne	Hitech TGR
P12	Louis Sharp	Rodin Motorsport
P13	James Wharton	ART Grand Prix
P14	Ugo Ugochukwu	PREMA Racing
P15	Joshua Dufek	Hitech TGR
P16	Charlie Wurz	TRIDENT
P17	Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak	Campos Racing
P18	Callum Voisin	Rodin Motorsport
P19	Brando Badoer	PREMA Racing
P20	Gerrard Xie	Hitech TGR
P21	Christian Ho	DAMS Lucas Oil
P22	Matías Zagazeta	DAMS Lucas Oil
P23	James Hedley	AIX Racing
P24	Brad Benavides	AIX Racing
P25	Nicola Lacorte	DAMS Lucas Oil
P26	Théophile Naël	Van Amersfoort Racing
P27	Bruno Del Pino	MP Motorsport
P28	Noel León	PREMA Racing
DNF	Ivan Domingues	Van Amersfoort Racing
DNF	Nicola Marinangeli	AIX Racing