Following a solid weekend in Monza, the 2026 Formula 3 season came to a close with a double-feature race finale at the new Madring circuit in Madrid, Spain. Tuukka, Mattia and Alessandro all displayed great improvement in their pace and racing in the closing chapters of the season. The team entered the final race weekend wanting to maximise their points and try and make final moves up the championship leaderboards.
Formula 3 was the first on track for the weekend, with Free Practice taking place on the Friday morning before the two Qualifying sessions ahead later in the day.
The free practice session was unfortunately brought to a premature end by a red flag after Lacorte crashed and hit the barriers. The MP Motorsport drivers maximised their session, completing around 16 to 17 laps of the circuit, enabling the drivers to get a good feel for track conditions before the afternoon qualifying sessions.
Tuukka was the fastest of the team in the session. Initially, in the first half, Tuukka was producing lap times within the top five, but overall ended up in P8 with a fastest time of 1:50.192.
Following that, both Mattia and Alessandro’s fastest times were quite close to one another, with a 0.028-second gap between them.
Mattia came out of the session P11 with a fastest time of 1:50.54, while Alessandro followed behind him in P12 with his fastest time of 1:50.568.
After getting another opportunity to test on the Madrid track beyond testing, which occurred during the break in August, Free Practice set up the team for a solid qualifying afternoon, which was to follow.
Free Practice Results:
Due to the Madrid weekend having an additional feature race, there were two qualifying sessions.
There were condition changes from Free Practice; the circuit was hotter for qualifying, which meant the tyres would heat up a lot quicker.
In the first session, achieving a banker lap was crucial, and avoiding any sort of mistakes was key. Madrid's high-speed and high-curb-usage conditions severely limited room for mistakes.
Overall, qualifying was crucial for track position, as most of the race would consist of position management.
At the start of the first qualifying session, much of the pack was bunched up, which limited the ability to secure faster lap times in cleaner air; with the nonstop nature of the circuit, it paid to have space.
At the start of the session, both Mattia and Alessandro were quick and, in the first set of flying laps, had times within the top five.
Later on, after other teams endured issues, the MP Motorsport drivers capitalised to make the most of their session, with MP Motorsport producing flying laps within the final five minutes.
Tuukka in particular had a phenomenal drive and secured P3 with his fastest lap time of 1:50.637.
While Alessandro, not too far off, locked in P8 with his time of 1:50.930.
Finally, Mattia’s time of 1:50.930 solidified him in P16 for the first qualifying session.
Qualifying 1 Results:
In the second qualifying session, following a short break from the first, the drivers took to the race track for the last time before the final point-determining races of the 2026 season.
All the MP Motorsport drivers entered the second session with pace and confidence. Mattia improved significantly from the first session and initially secured P4, which was snatched up by Kato in his final flying lap of the session.
With the battle for fastest lap fluctuating at the end of the session, Tuukka was able to sneak in one last phenomenal flying lap before the time ran out. He put his all into the lap, locked in a purple sector in lap one, to then take P1 with a fastest lap time of 1:49.750.
Mattia ended the session P5 with his fastest lap time of 1:49.750, while Alessandro, not too far behind, locked in P7 with his fastest time of 1:49.750.
Overall, Qualifying 2 was a great session for MP Motorsport, with all drivers qualifying within the top ten.
Qualifying 2 Results:
The Formula 3 Sprint Race went ahead on Saturday at the Madring as the first-ever race at the circuit.
For MP Motorsport, Alessandro started in P5, with Tuukka in P10, and Mattia in P16.
On lap one, Alessandro ran wide on the start, but was still able to overtake Del Pino for P4 provisionally. However, a couple of laps later, he was instructed by the team to cede the position to avoid being penalised for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. After that, Alessandro stayed in P5.
After losing DRS to Del Pino ahead of him, he fell under pressure from Rivera behind him midway into the race. In the final lap, Alessandro caught back up to Del Pino and began putting pressure on the Van Amersfoort Racing driver, but was unable to overtake and came out of the Sprint Race with solid points in P5.
Tuukka maintained his P10 grid start position on the launch. Overtaking proved tricky, and Tuukka played the waiting game behind Ugochukwu. On lap 11, Tuukka began to come under pressure from Kato behind him and unfortunately lost his position the following lap. Overall, Tuukka remained in P11 until the conclusion of the race.
Mattia’s race had a great start, where he launched ahead of David and snatched up P15 on the launch. However, after that, he remained in the DRS chain of drivers, unable to make up any more positions over the course of the Sprint Race. This resulted in him finishing in P15.
Sprint Race Results:
The first Feature Race took place on a Saturday afternoon, with Tuukka starting on row 2 in P3, Alessandro in P8, and Mattia in P15.
The race got off to a rough start, with lap one ending in chaos: multiple cars collided, resulting in eight DNFs, which brought out the safety car and swiftly red-flagged the race.
The race had a rolling restart under the safety car, with Tuukka in P3, Alessandro in P7 and Mattia now in P13.
On the restart, all the MP Motorsport drivers maintained their grid positions.
On lap 4, Tuukka was under pressure from the championship contender Ugochukwu, but he held onto his P3 position firmly. A couple of laps later, Tuukka lost DRS to Kato in P2 and began to push to potentially make his way further up the podium.
Tuukka was unfortunately unable to pass Kato and finished in P3. However, in a great flying push at the end of the race, he set a purple lap time of 1:51.762 on the penultimate lap, which got him the bonus fastest lap point. In a great maintenance of position, Tuukka converted his P3 starting spot to a podium finish.
Following, Alessandro's race was all about the chase, where, after the safety car restart, he patiently waited for the opportunity to snatch up P6 from Rivera ahead of him. On lap 10, Alessandro finally made his move and overtook the Campos Racing driver around the outside and rocketed to P6.
Meanwhile, up ahead, the championship leader, Slater, spun out and instigated another safety car. Once the race was green-flagged on lap 12, Alessandro maintained his P6 position to the flags and left the first feature race with solid points.
Finally, although further down the grid, Mattia also made the most given the difficult overtaking conditions of the Madrid track. On the original restart, Mattia was behind De Palo and spent the first half of the race chasing him down. When pushing, on lap 8, Mattia did lock up but maintained his position and continued charging towards moving up to P12.
Not long after Slater's incident on lap 10, Mattia finally made his move on De Palo and took P12 before the safety car came out. From the green flag, Mattia maintained P12 and held it to the end of the race.
Race 1 Results:
Although the broadcast was focused on the championship battle between Slater and Ugochukwu, MP Motorsport had a phenomenal closing weekend to the Formula 3 season.
The team started with solid grid positions, with Tuukka on pole, Mattia in P5 and Alessandro in P7.
Tuukka had a fantastic final race from lights to flags. On the launch, he was able to maintain his pole position and took an aggressive hold of the inside line. No other driver on the Madrid weekend was able to hold onto pole position, but Tuukka, on the immediate defence on the launch, was the first.
The Finnish driver controlled the race and held off driver's championship contender Ugochukwu for the bulk of the race. On lap 17, Yamakoshi crashed out, which brought out the safety car for one lap before the race was green-flagged for one final lap.
In a final-lap shootout, Tuukka controlled the restart. He took off early and cleared the Campos Racing driver almost immediately and held P1 to the flags, taking his first-ever win in Formula 3. As such, Tuukka took P3 in the drivers' championship, and the team took P3 in the teams' championship in an incredible turnaround to close the 2026 Formula 3 season.
On the launch, Alessandro locked up slightly but was able to move up to P6, right behind his teammate, Mattia, in P5.
As for Mattia, on the launch, he maintained his grid position from lights to flags.
Mattia and Alessandro raced in tandem for the majority of the race. However, no action occurred between them. To maximise team points, they raced cleanly and stayed in their positions to the flag to aid the team in taking P3 in the Teams Championship.
Feature Race Results:
With the conclusion of Round 9 in Madrid, the 2026 Formula 3 season came to an end in a remarkable fashion for MP Motorsport.
In an action-packed weekend, the team and drivers were able to maximise the final race to their best abilities and emerged from the season in a great championship position across the board.
Tuukka, in a fantastic run, achieved two podium finishes with P3 in Race 1 and P1 in Race 2, which propelled him up to P3 in the drivers' championship.
Meanwhile, Mattia and Alessandro both had great runs over the weekend, accumulating enough points to bring MP Motorsport up to P3 in the teams' championship.
From a rocky start in the first half of the season, the team did a fantastic job of turning the season around and coming out of the 2026 season on an incredible high note.
Driver Standings After Round 2:
Team Standings:
