What a stunning drive. Pedro Clerot put on a masterclass in the Madrid Feature Race 1, converting a second-place start into his very first victory in Formula 3. The Rodin Motorsport driver snatched the lead right off the line at Turn 1 and simply refused to look back, leading every single lap of a chaotic, incident-packed race. Behind him, Taito Kato brought his ART Grand Prix machine home in second, while MP Motorsport's Tuukka Taponen rounded out the podium in third.
That said, the opening laps were absolute disaster material. A heavy multi-car smash kicked off at the entry of Turn 8 when Van Amersfoort Racing teammates Bruno Del Pino and Enzo Deligny collided. That initial contact triggered a chain reaction that sucked in Maciej Gladysz—who went straight into the back of Fionn McLaughlin—along with Fernando Barrichello, Woohyun Shin, and José Garfias. Even TRIDENT title hopeful Freddie Slater caught some friendly fire, clipping Hiyu Yamakoshi at Turn 1 and forcing his team into a frantic red-flag pit stop to slap new front wings on both Slater and teammate Noah Stromsted's cars.
Once the chaos cleared and a rolling start got things moving again on Lap 3, Clerot immediately put his head down. Showing blistering pace, the Brazilian driver stretched a 1.4-second gap over Kato by the start of Lap 5. But the championship drama was only just beginning. Slater, desperate to make up ground, locked up into Turn 1 while scrap-happy with Yamakoshi for 14th place. Then came the massive twist on Lap 10: Slater spun hard into the barrier at Turn 19, ending his race on the spot and bringing out the Safety Car.
When racing resumed on Lap 12, Clerot again checked out, extending his advantage to 1.2 seconds by Lap 17. Down the order, Ugo Ugochukwu fought like mad to keep fourth place under relentless pressure from Jin Nakamura, while Ernesto Rivera and Théophile Nael went wheel-to-wheel through the Turn 5 chicane on the final lap, both sliding off track in the scrap. But up front, nobody had an answer for Clerot. He crossed the line totally untroubled to claim that long-awaited maiden win.
“I have no words to describe it. We knew it was all about the start, and we nailed it. Thanks to the team for the beautiful car. We were in control since Lap 1, bit of a messy one, glad everyone is okay, it was a big crash. Really happy, cannot thank the team enough. We needed this after Monza, so very happy,” Clerot said after climbing out of his Rodin Motorsport machine.
Beyond the win, the day belonged to Campos Racing. With Ugochukwu finishing fourth, Rivera eighth, and Nael ninth, Campos officially locked down the 2026 Teams' Championship—their second consecutive title in the category—finishing on 314 points to TRIDENT's 213. ART Grand Prix sits third on 177 points, with Van Amersfoort Racing and MP Motorsport tied in fourth on 162. Meanwhile, at the top of the Drivers' Championship, Ugochukwu's fourth-place finish draws him level with the sidelined Slater on 141 points apiece, though Ugochukwu holds the edge on race wins heading into Sunday's season-ending Feature Race at 09:55 local time.
