Nael sets the benchmark for Campos at home
Théophile Nael delivered the standout lap of Barcelona Free Practice, putting Campos Racing on top in emphatic fashion at the team’s home event. The Frenchman’s 1:28.422 proved decisive, heading a Campos 1-2-3 ahead of Ugo Ugochukwu and Ernesto Rivera.
It was a strong collective statement from Campos, not only because of the final order but because all three cars moved to the front during the key performance phase of the session. Ugochukwu ended up just over two-tenths adrift of Nael, while Rivera completed the sweep in third, 0.365s away from the fastest time.
AIX opens the running before the field responds
AIX Racing were the first to commit to push laps, with Fernando Barrichello establishing the early reference at 1:30.655, more than seven-tenths clear of teammate Yevan David. The team entered the Barcelona round with added attention following its recent line-up change, covered in our report on Ricardo Escotto joining AIX Racing for the FIA F3 Barcelona round.
Once the rest of the field emerged with just under 30 minutes remaining, the pace accelerated quickly. Bruno del Pino briefly took over for Van Amersfoort Racing with a 1:29.425, but several drivers were already lighting up quicker sectors behind him.
Taito Kato then moved to the top with a 1:29.103, only for the margins to tighten immediately. Freddie Slater slotted in just 0.002s behind the ART Grand Prix driver, underlining how compressed the order was before Campos made its decisive move.
Tyre drop-off limits late improvements
After the main sequence of flying laps, the entire field returned to the pitlane before heading back out with under 14 minutes left. By then, however, the peak performance window appeared to have passed. Few drivers found meaningful improvement as tyre performance began to drop, leaving the Campos trio locked into the top three.
Behind Nael, Ugochukwu and Rivera, Alessandro Giusti finished fourth, with Kato fifth and Brando Badoer sixth. Kanato Le took seventh, ahead of Noah Stromsted and Mattia Colnaghi, while del Pino rounded out the top 10 after his earlier spell at the head of the timesheets.
The session now shifts into analysis mode. Drivers and engineers will debrief the data before returning to the track for Qualifying at 15:00 local time, where Campos will look to convert its practice pace into a more meaningful result.
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