Returning for round three of the Formula 3 2026 season, MP Motorsport continued in a second weekend of racing, this time on familiar territory for the F2 and F3 teams, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Currently sitting in P6 in the teams' championship and with Alessandro in the top 10, a new weekend of racing allowed the drivers and team the opportunity to gain more points and experience to rise in the constructors' and drivers' championship ranks.
The only free practice of the Formula 3 weekend went underway on a Friday morning at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
With plenty of data from pre-season testing at the circuit earlier, the team came into the weekend prepared. All drivers completed a total of 11 laps, getting a good feel of the circuit before qualifying.
Alessandro scored the fastest lap of the three, with a 1:29.034, placing himself in P4. Following him, Mattia secured a P9 with a fastest time of 1:29.408.
Finally, only 0.019 seconds behind his teammate was Tuukka in P11 with a fastest lap time of 1:29.427.
A decent start to the weekend for the drivers, with plenty of potential for qualifying later in the day.
Free Practice Results:
Qualifying went away on Friday afternoon in Barcelona, with high track temperatures.
Fastest of the MP Motorsport drivers was Tuukka, in an improvement from the earlier practice session. Tuukka placed P9 in the session with a 1:28.733 fastest time.
Following that, Alessandro completed 11 laps, with his fastest being a 1:28.994, putting himself in P16 overall for the session.
Finally, Mattia set a fastest 1:28.994, placing P16 in the session. Although further down the grid for qualifying, the two races would enable the drivers plenty of opportunity for improvement to score points.
Qualifying Results:
Saturday's Sprint race got underway from a reversed grid for the top 12 in qualifying, with Tuukka starting on row 2 in P4, Alessandro in P13, and Mattia in P15.
At the end of the formation lap, Mattia had an issue where he ended up starting from the pits; he raced for 5 laps, even making it up to P19 before he retired the car.
On the other hand, both Tuukka and Alessandro had a clean start, with both drivers maintaining their grid positions on the initial launch. On lap 5, Ernesto Rivera had an issue with his car, resulting in a DNF, which promoted Alessandro to P12.
On the lap 11 safety car restart, Tuukka was on the back of Gerard Xie, but was unable to make the overtake. On the same lap, Noah Strømsted attempted an overtake on Alessandro, but he defended well and kept him behind.
Another Safety Car came out on lap 13 due to Ugo Ugochukwu going into the gravel, which ended up promoting Alessandro further to P11.
On the second safety car restart on lap 17, Tuukka was again on the back of Gerard Xie, with this battle going on until the penultimate lap. Unfortunately, on lap 19, Noah Strømsted overtook Alessandro, causing him to fall to P12, where he finished. Although, due to a 10-second time penalty to Brando Badoer, Alessandro finished just outside the points in P11.
From lap 19 to 21 it was a three-way battle for a podium place finish for Tuukka, Freddie Slater and Gerard Xie. On lap 20, Tuukka was close to overtaking Gerard Xie for P3 but was pushed off. In a tight fight to the flags, Tuukka came home in P4, narrowly missing out on a podium finish.
Sprint Race Results:
The concluding Feature race for Formula 3 began on an early morning with cooler track conditions from the previous day. Starting on the grid, Tuukka was top of the MP drivers in P9, followed by Alessandro in P13 and Mattia in P15.
On a good opening launch, Mattia procured an overtake over Noah Strømsted, rocketing himself to P13. Meanwhile Alessandro fell back to P17, and Tuukka, although battling hard for his position, remained in P9.
By lap 2, both Mattia and Alessandro had fallen back a place, and on a safety car restart on lap 4, Mattia lost his position to Gerard Xie, falling back to P15. By this point, Alessandro had driven himself behind his teammate into P16, and attempted to challenge his teammate, but was unfortunately overtaken by Noah Strømsted. Caught amongst a tight pack, Mattia fell further down to P19 by the time a Safety Car was called out for Nicola Lacorte.
On the restart, Tuukka exhibited some challenge to Rivera for P8 on lap 14, but unfortunately he began to struggle on his tyres. On lap 17, Tuukka was overtaken by Taito Kato, losing his position before regaining his P9. Now struggling with the tyres, Tuukka was overtaken by Taito Kato again on lap 24, falling to P10.
On lap 25, Maciej Gładysz attempted an overtake on Tuukka, resulting in both drivers going wide, where Tuukka lost his place, falling down to P11; then he was overtaken by Noah Strømsted, falling further to P12. In a tragic loss to a promising race, with his tyre struggle only growing, Tuukka finished in P4.
On the other hand, Mattia was able to climb his way back up to P18 on lap 24 where he finished the race, while only a place ahead of him, his teammate Alessandro crossed the line in P17.
Feature Race Results:
MP Motorsport left Barcelona with highs and lows for the weekend. With promise for the drivers performing well in Practice and Qualifying, Tuukka came home with P4 in race one, bringing home points for the team on a weekend with some struggles. With the drivers making improvements race by race, MP Motorsport moves into the next race weekend at the Red Bull Ring in Austria in late June with a positive attitude.
Driver Standings After Round 2:
Team Standings After Round 2:
