Taito Kato and Tuukka Taponen secured pole positions for the feature races of the Madrid round that marks the finale of the 2026 Formula 3 season. Friday the 11th featured two qualifying sessions at Madring, the street circuit laid out through the streets of Madrid, Spain, which will decide the title between Freddie Slater and Ugo Ugochukwu; the Japanese driver will start ahead in the first of the weekend’s three races, while the Finnish driver leads the Sunday event. The sole Sprint of the round will be led by James Wharton.
The Brazilians delivered mixed performances. Pedro Clerot secured strong results in both sessions, finishing second in the first and third in the final session. However, the Rodin Motorsport driver clipped the wall in the dying moments of the second qualifying. Fernando Barrichello, meanwhile, will have to race back up after qualifying 25th and 27th with the AIX Racing car.
The first qualifying session saw Kato secure pole with a lap time of 1:50.535, a lap during which he brushed the wall in his ART Grand Prix car. Brazilian Pedro Clerot finished second with Rodin Motorsport, just 0.012s off the pole. Tuukka Taponen, MP Motorsport, starts third, followed by Ugo Ugochukwu in fourth for Campos Racing. Enzo Deligny, Van Amersfoort, and Jin Nakamura, Hitech, complete the top six.
Ernesto Rivera, driving for Campos Racing, will line up seventh, sharing the fourth row with Alessandro Giusti, eighth for MP Motorsport. Bruno Del Pino sits ninth for Van Amersfoort, while Alex Powell, from Prema, starts tenth. Theophile Nael of Campos Racing and James Wharton of Prema complete the top 12, with Wharton starting the Sprint from pole.
The championship leader, Freddie Slater, did not fare well in the first session. The Briton, who complained about the car’s behaviour during the session with Trident, was just 17th and will start from that position for both Saturday races. Fernando Barrichello will also need to recover, starting 25th in both races for AIX Racing.
Moments after the first qualifying session, the grid for Sunday was set with a fresh session. Taponen clinched pole for Sunday with 1:49.750, beating Ugochukwu by just 0.021 seconds, leaving the championship’s vice-leader in second. Clerot, who beat him on the final attempt, started third, followed by Taito Kato, fourth for Van Amersfoort. Mattia Colnaghi, also from Van Amersfoort, and Deligny complete the group of the six best.
Giusti took seventh on the Sunday grid, ahead of Slater in eighth. Yevan David, the driver defending AIX Racing, will start ninth, while Rivera completes the top ten. Brando Badoer, of Rodin Motorsport, and Powell complete the list of the 12 best on the grid. Barrichello starts Sunday’s race from 27th position.
The first two Formula 3 races in Madrid will be contested on Saturday, with the Sprint scheduled for 6:05 and the main race from 13:00. The championship decision takes place on Sunday with a single race scheduled for 16:45.
