F3 enters the final phase of the season at Spa
Round 8 - Spa-Francorchamps - Preview
The Formula 3 Championship has arrived in Belgium for Round 8 of the series at the historic Spa-Francorchamps circuit, where the season will take on a new intensity with only three rounds remaining.
For Martinius Stenshorne, currently leading the Hitech charge, he has three Sprints and three Feature Race opportunities to home in on his target of a top-three placing in the Drivers’ Standings. If recent form is anything to go by – he has two wins and two further podiums under his belt – that’s a target that is well within reach.
Racing alongside him this weekend is the team’s newest signing, Freddie Slater, who joins Hitech for the Spa challenge. The 16-year-old British driver will be stepping into F3 machinery for the second time, having made an impressive series debut with another team at the Bahrain Grand Prix. In Sakhir, he qualified in tenth place then seized an early Sprint Race lead in an epic opening encounter before ultimately claiming a second-place podium finish.
Gerrard Xie will also be looking to bring his season to a positive conclusion in the remaining rounds, and Spa is a circuit where he has enjoyed success in recent years. In GB3, the Chinese driver claimed points in all three races in 2023, while in 2024 he celebrated a second-place podium at the Belgian track. He also took part in the Spa round of Euroformula Open in both of those seasons and last year took a victory.
Fast and challenging, Spa-Francorchamps is a firm favourite for most of the drivers. 7.004km in length, it has more than 100m of elevation change and a mix of medium and high-speed corners that are as exciting as they are challenging.
The weather in the Ardennes region can be a little more temperamental. Past races have witnessed both scorching temperatures and torrential downpours – often during the same weekend!
Martinius Stenshorne spoke to F3.com about the Spa-Francorchamps circuit:
“It's quite high-speed. You have low speed corners as well, but the characteristic of the track is more high-speed. It's a difficult track to get right with all the high-speed corners. With track limits, it's more difficult to get now but still possible, but the corners are nice.”
“Overtaking is best after Eau Rouge along that straight and then into the last corner, those are the two best overtaking opportunities.”
“Usually, the weather is the most difficult to predict. Knowing when it’s going to be wet or dry, usually it’s wet, but getting the tyres right is the most difficult part of the weekend.”
Friday 25 July
09:00 Practice
14:00 Qualifying
Saturday 26 July
09:15 Sprint Race (12 Laps)
Grid set by reversing Top 12 of Qualifying Results
Sunday 27 July
08:30 Feature Race (15 Laps)
All times local