Practice-
Rafael Camara made a bright start to the Barcelona weekend, setting a 1:29.024 to finish up as the quickest driver in Free Practice for Trident.
The Brazilian logged his best effort on his attempt, and finished the session 0.3s quicker than closest challenger Alessandro Giusti of MP Motorsport. Home hero, Mari Boya was third for Campos Racing.
Teams looked to maximise their track time with relevant running in the only session ahead of Qualifying, so opted to wait before getting serious running underway.
With his first lap of the day, Camara set the time to beat with a 1:29.024 in the Trident, while Giusti slotted into second, 0.322s down on the Championship leader.
Boya made a strong start to his home weekend as he went third-quickest in his Campos, while Martinius Stenshorne and Tim Tramnitz rounded out the top five after the first round of laps.
Trident remained on track, while everyone returned to the pitlane with just over 10 minutes to go, and Charlie Wurz improved to go fourth on a 1:29.615.
With tyre life at a premium in hot conditions, there were very few improvements after the first set of laps in the closing minutes.
Qualifying-
Rafael Camara was in formidable form in Barcelona Qualifying, taking his fourth pole position in the opening five rounds of the 2025 season.
The Trident driver set a 1:28.761 for the top spot, 0.2s clear of Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov and ART Grand Prix driver Laurens van Hoepen in third.
The battle for track position started immediately as drivers sought the ideal place to gain a tow but avoid traffic ahead of them. Eventually Noah Stromsted won a place at the front of the queue with Trident teammate Rafael Camara right behind them.
The Trident pair completed their laps, but they were instantly beaten by Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak on a 1:29.433 who set the early benchmark.
Tuukka Taponen beat that on his first flying lap as ART Grand Prix opted to run their trio off sequence and later than the rest. The Finn pipped Inthraphuvasak by 0.042s, as teammate James Wharton slotted into third place.
Track limits became a big factor as drivers returned to the pitlane, with several drivers losing their original times for exceeding track limits. Tim Tramnitz was one of those along with Tsolov, leaving both without a lap going into the second runs.
Tsolov delivered a time good enough for P4 to kick off second round of laptimes, but Camara behind was flying.
A 1:28.671 put him on provisional pole ahead of the ART’s van Hoepen, while Alessandro Giusti and Tramnitz followed in third and fourth.
Into the final runs, Camara told his team he’d wait to head back out in order to get a clean track, while his rivals rejoined the circuit to try and dislodge him for P1.
But nobody could prevent Camara from sealing his fourth pole of the season. Tsolov and van Hoepen were his closest challengers in second and third after the Campos driver improved on his last attempt.
The full top 10 are- Pole: Camara, P2: Tsolov, P3: van Hoepen, P4: Nael, P5: Ramos, P6: Giusti, P7: Domingues, P8: Stromsted, P9: Taponen and P10: Tramnitz.
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