The fourth round of the 2026 Formula 3 championship took place at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. After a solid point-scoring weekend in Barcelona, coming into the weekend P6 in the teams' championship, the weekend in Spielberg presented more opportunity for the team to rise in the ranks and score important points for the drivers' and teams' championships.
After a week off from racing, the Formula 3 drivers took to the track at the Red Bull Ring for free practice.
The fastest of the MP Motorsport drivers in the session was Mattia, logging a total of 19 laps, with his fastest time of 1:22.855 putting him P11 in the session.
Continuing, Tuukka came into the session strong, exhibiting great pace, during which he logged the fastest lap times in the first half of the session. In the end, he completed a total of 19 laps, securing P13 with a fastest time of 1:22.933.
Finally, after 16 laps during the session, Alessandro logged his fastest lap of 1:23.075, placing 22nd in the session.
With a weekend of racing ahead, the drivers were warming up to the track for qualifying the following morning.
Free Practice Results:
The green light went on for the single qualifying session of the Formula 3 weekend at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. After a couple of warm-up laps, both Tuukka and Alessandro were immediately quick, starting strong in P1 and P2 after the first set of laps.
As the other teams put in their laps, Tuukka's times kept improving, scoring fastest lap after fastest lap in the session. Eventually, his great pace scored him P3 in qualifying with a fastest lap of 1:21.775. Not too far behind with a fastest lap of 1:21.975, Alessandro secured P6. While further down the grid in P18, Mattia set a fastest lap of 1:22.251.
Unfortunately, Alessandro post-qualifying was given a three-place grid penalty for both the Sprint and Feature race for impeding on Christian Ho during the session.
Overall, Tuukka and Alessandro exhibited great pace and placed in strong points and podium-prospecting positions for the races ahead.
Qualifying Results:
The sprint race at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg took place mid-morning in cooler but still hot track conditions. MP Motorsports starting positions consisted of Tuukka in P9, Alessandro in P10 and Mattia in P18.
There was immediate contact between the two Trident cars on the first launch, resulting in the release of a safety car. At this point, Tuukka had climbed to P6 and Alessandro to P8, while Mattia maintained his starting grid position. The safety car came in at the end of lap 3, and on the launch Tuukka and Mattia maintained their positions, while Alessandro fell back a place to P9.
On lap 4, Mattia rocketed past Louis Sharp and Christian Ho up to P16. On the following lap, Alessandro procured a great move around the outside of Hiyu Yamakoshi, snatching up P8.
Lap 6 saw a virtual safety car come out as a result of Fionn McLaughlin's loss of a front wing after contact. The race went green again the following lap; Mattia, on lap 8, overtook Nicola Lacorte on the inside to take P15.
On lap 14, Alessandro fell to P10 behind Hiyu Yamakoshi and Noah Strømsted, while on lap 16, Mattia was battling side by side with Louis Sharp to maintain his P15 position.
Bruno Del Pino, on lap 17, made an overtake on Alessandro, where he fell to P11, while the following lap saw Mattia fall to P16 after being overtaken by Noah Strømsted.
On lap 19, Alessandro fought back and forth with Bruno Del Pino and maintained his P11 position. On the same lap, Tuukka fell to P7 after being overtaken by Noah Strømsted.
The final two laps were a tense battle to maintain positions, with Alessandro falling to P12 on lap 20 after losing the position to Ugo Ugochukwu. Mattia, at the end of lap 21, fell down the order for a P18 finish, and after post-race penalties, P17. Meanwhile, Tuukka finished in a solid P7 and, after penalties were distributed, P6, ending the race in the points.
Sprint Race Results:
The final feature race went ahead at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg for Formula 3 with Tuukka starting on row two in P3, Alessandro in P9 and Mattia in P18.
At the start, Noah Strømsted overtook Tuukka for P4, followed by Freddie Slater, resulting in Tuukka falling to P5 at the conclusion of the first lap.
A safety car came out at the end of lap 1 as a result of contact between Yevan David and Maciej Gładysz, where at this point Alessandro was up to P7 and Mattia P14. The safety car stayed out for two laps and ended at the conclusion of lap 3.
On lap 5, Christian Ho fell down the grid, promoting Mattia to P13 before a virtual safety car came out to collect the cars of Fernando Barrichello and Woohyun Shin after a collision between the two.
The virtual safety car stayed until lap 7. On the restart, the MP Motorsport drivers made the most of the opportunity with Tuukka overtaking Noah Strømsted for P4 and Alessandro overtaking Jin Nakamura for P6. Unfortunately, once DRS opened on lap 8, Noah Strømsted took the P4 place back from Tuukka.
On lap 12, Mattia overtook Enzo Deligny, taking P12. Following, on lap 17, when battling with Taito Kato, Alessandro ran wide and fell to P9. A lap later, on lap 18, Tuukka fell to P6 after Taito Kato overtook him.
With six laps to go, Mattia fell to P13 after being overtaken by Nicola Lacorte, but on lap 23 he overtook James Wharton, taking back P12.
Stuck in traffic on lap 25, Tuukka was pushed back to P7 after being stuck behind a battle between Taito Kato and Hiyu Yamakoshi ahead.
On the final lap, James Wharton overtook Mattia, and he fell to P13. Mattia finished in that position, but due to a pending five-second penalty for infringing on an earlier virtual safety car, he finished in P21; after post-race penalties, up to P20.
Meanwhile, Tuukka finished in P7, scoring solid points, while Alessandro narrowly missed out on a top ten finish with P11 but received a ten-second time penalty for a start infringement, causing him to finish in P22.
Feature Race Results:
The MP Motorsport team came out of round 4 at the Red Bull Ring with a solid performance.
Tuukka had consistent point-scoring positions while Alessandro exhibited great potential, especially in the feature race for a point-scoring finish.
Overall, the team move forward with high spirits to another weekend of racing at the legendary circuit at Silverstone.
Driver Standings After Round 2:
Team Standings After Round 2:
