The MP Motorsport team entered Round 6 of the 2026 Formula 3 season with optimism for improvement.
After an unfortunate weekend in Round 5 at Silverstone, with the team sitting P7 in the teams' championship, the new race week at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps offered the team more opportunities to improve performance and score points.
A return to the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps for the 2026 weekend in Belgium, the team set off on track for free practice on Friday afternoon.
Early on in the session, all MP Motorsport drivers were producing fast lap times with Alessandro initially leading with a 2:06.895 early on before Tuukka offsetting that with a 2:06.622 soon after.
With the conclusion of the free practice session, Tuukka ended the session highest in the team in P8 with a fastest time of 2:06.606, completing a solid total of 10 laps.
Following, Mattia, only 0.127 seconds off Tuukka, ended the session having completed 11 laps, placing P11 with a fastest time of 2:06.733.
Finally, ending free practice in P15, Alessandro completed 10 laps during the session, where he set a fastest time of 2:06.895.
Overall, a solid performance in the practice session, which set a positive mood for the qualifying set later in the day.
Free Practice Results:
The qualifying session for Formula 3 was held in wet conditions with intermittent rain.
From the start of the session, Tuukka set a fastest sector of 36.6, which he maintained until the end. With his great pace, Tuukka went momentarily P1 with his time of 2:05.401, only pushed down to P2 by Freddie Slater. Already having been fast in free practice, for qualifying, the team made minor changes to Tuukka's car and switched to the medium compound tyre, which really made that final push the difference to qualify on the front row.
Following, Mattia was driving consistently within the top ten, with his fastest time of 2:05.695 placing him P6. Having only produced one lap before rain and traffic impacted the entire grid, Mattia felt that “there was definitely a bit more to find” but was overall happy with the placement, as he was in a ”good starting position to build on for the next races” up ahead.
Meanwhile, Alessandro was stuck in the pack of the midfield, securing P16 with a fastest time of 2:06.153.
Throughout the session, many drivers were attempting to receive tows from others while slowing down in sectors to attempt to find some clean air. With many drivers moving toward this similar strategy, an incident involving Noah Strømsted, Yevan David, Hiyu Yamakoshi, José Garfias, Louis Sharp and James Wharton resulted in the qualifying session being red-flagged and not resumed with less than ten minutes left.
With the shortened qualifying, Tuukka secured a front row start in P2 while Mattia sat just outside in the top five.
Qualifying Results:
The sprint race went away for 12 laps of hard racing at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps with Mattia starting in P3, Tuukka P9 and Alessandro in P13.
Mattia in his race lost out at the launch, where he fell back to P4. He then battled hard against Taito Kato, who on lap 6 attempted to overtake, but Mattia defended aggressively and prevented the ART Racing driver from passing. This resulted in him running wide and out of threat territory for Mattia. Crossing the line, Mattia came out in P4, a solid performance in the points, only narrowly missing out on the podium.
In a more eventful string of events, Tuukka, during the opening lap, had the two championship contenders collide and drive off track next to him. He narrowly missed out on the incident and stayed on track while Freddie Slater was out, and Ugo Ugochukwu was down to P29 – meanwhile, Tuukka climbed up the leaderboard to P7.
His action was yet to be over, as throughout the final half of racing, Tuukka battled back and forth with Ernesto Rivera for P7 and P8. On Lap 6, Ernesto Rivera overtook, while two laps later, Tuukka attempted to reclaim the position, diving down the inside of Turn 1 but unfortunately lost out. On the penultimate lap, Tuukka reclaimed the P7 position from Ernesto Rivera, but battled wheel to wheel on the final lap to come out of the race victorious in P7.
Starting further back from his teammates, Alessandro had to climb his way into a point-scoring position. On the launch, he was swiftly up to P13, and after the safety car, P11. After the safety car came in at the end of lap 3, he overtook Noah Strømsted for P10 on lap 4, putting himself in the points early on. His stamina continued, and he overtook Christian Ho for P9 on the following lap. In a great first half performance, Alessandro maintained his P9 position to the flag.
In a great redemption race from Silverstone, the first race back saw all MP Motorsport drivers in the top ten scoring points.
Sprint Race Results:
The feature race at Spa went away with Tuukka starting on the front row in P2, with Mattia not too far away in P5, while Alessandro was further down the grid in P11.
In a great start to the race, Tuukka rocketed past the pole sitter, Freddie Slater, to snatch up P1 on the starting launch. Unfortunately, Hiyu Yamakoshi made a move before the end of the race to take the position, which pushed Tuukka down to P2. Later on lap 4, Hiyu Yamakoshi ran wide after a safety car restart, which brought Tuukka back into the battle.
Once DRS was enabled, Tuukka began to close in on P1, but unfortunately, a lap later, Freddie Slater overtook him, pushing him down to P3. Ernesto Rivera launched past him on lap 9 to take P3.
Mattia’s race was full of battles for positions, with the opening launch from the lights consisting of a battle with Ernesto Rivera for P4, in which he snatched it up. He maintained the position until lap 5, where Ernesto Rivera reclaimed the position.
Past the midway point of the race, Tuukka ran wide on lap 10, which brought Mattia closer to him. The teammates battled back and forth for the position, with Mattia coming out victorious.
The following lap, Tuukka began to lose pace, falling under pressure from Maciej Gładysz, losing the position and falling to P6.
Two laps later, on lap 13, Taito Kato overtook him as well, causing him to fall to P7. With a great start, Tuukka had an unfortunate ending to half of his race, crossing the line in P7 in the points.
On the closing lap of the race, Mattia began to close in on Freddie Slater for P3, but unfortunately was unable to get close enough to the Trident driver before the flags, only narrowly missing out on the podium to finish in P4.
In a race of his own in contrast to his teammates, Alessandro started just out of the points and had to make his way up the grid. On the launch, he ran wide and fell down to P13, although on lap 1 Yevan David crashed out, which promoted him up to P12.
In a battle with Brando Badoer on lap 7, Alessandro ran momentarily off track but maintained his P12 position and carried on his trek into the points. Two laps later, Alessandro overtook Christian Ho to move back up to his grid start position of P11.
Regaining some pace, a lap later, he made another move to overtake Brando Badoer to put himself into the points in P10. Continuing his climb, Alessandro overtook the provisional championship leader Ugo Ugochukwu on lap 11 to take P9.
The following lap, Alessandro made a move on Noah Strømsted to take P8. On the penultimate lap, Brando Badoer made a first attempt to take the position from Alessandro, but he held on. Unfortunately, on the final lap, Jin Nakamura snatched up P8 from Alessandro, resulting in him finishing in P9.
In an action-filled race, all the drivers fought hard to come out with points for the feature race, concluding the race weekend at Spa.
Feature Race Results:
Coming back from a dissatisfying weekend in Silverstone, Spa was the redemption weekend the MP Motorsport team needed.
With great qualifying pace, all the drivers were able to finish within the top ten for all races, with a full points finish for the final feature race.
Moving on, in a double-header, the team will return to racing at the Hungaroring with optimism to continue the solid performances committed in round 6.
Driver Standings After Round 6:
Team Standings After Round 6:
