The young French driver Theophile Nael achieved the fastest time in a disrupted practice session of the FIA Formula 3 on the winding streets of Monaco, marked by a serious accident involving his Prema teammate, James Wharton.
Nael, part of Campos Racing, continued the impressive start to the season for the team, with his teammate Ugo Ugochukwu rounding out the podium, while Freddie Slater of Trident interposed between the two Campos drivers.
At the start of the session, the drivers spent the first minutes adapting to the racing conditions after a break of nearly three months. Nael set the first representative time, but his record of 1m32.740s was annulled due to a violation of track limits.
Wharton posted an impressive time of 1m29.145s, but was quickly surpassed by Bruno Del Pino and Gerrard Xie, who set the pace with a 1m28.109s. Wharton’s accident occurred shortly after, when he lost control of his machine at the entrance of the swimming pool, forcing the session to be temporarily suspended.
After better repairs to the barriers, the session resumed with an additional 15 minutes. Nael quickly reasserted his dominance, but Xie took the lead with a time of 1m27.444s. Brando Badoer from Rodin Motorsport also recorded a good time, placing himself at the front with 1m27.055s.
In the final minutes of the session, Del Pino set a time of 1.26.482, leaving Badoer 0.573s behind. However, Nael soon reclaimed the lead with a 1m26.460s, while yellow flags appeared due to incidents involving Jose Garfias and Hiyu Yamakosi.
Finally, Nael posted an impressive 1m25.794s on his last lap, solidifying his position as the fastest in the session. Behind him, Slater managed to take second place with 1m25.975s, while DAMS driver Nicola Lacorte also had an accident but was able to return to the pits.
The final results of the practice session were as follows:
Position – Driver – Team – Time
1 – Theophile Nael – Campos Racing – 1m25.794s
2 – Freddie Slater – Trident – 1m25.853s (+0.059s)
3 – Ugo Ugochukwu – Campos Racing – 1m26.089s (+0.295s)
4 – Bruno del Pino – Van Amersfoort Racing – 1m26.137s (+0.343s)
5 – Pedro Clerot – Rodin Motorsport – 1m26.141s (+0.347s)
6 – Louis Sharp – Prema Racing – 1m26.175s (+0.381s)
7 – Ernesto Rivera – Campos Racing – 1m26.291s (+0.497s)
8 – Taito Kato – ART Grand Prix – 1m26.452s (+0.658s)
9 – Noah Stromsted – Trident – 1m26.496s (+0.702s)
10 – Enzo Deligny – Van Amersfoort Racing – 1m26.548s (+0.754s)
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
SourceID: SRC_b2e85d23bbcc5a72f59c86f89711761255b4ac60