Teen Ugo Ugochukwu becomes first F3 champion from USA after P2 in Madrid

Teen Ugo Ugochukwu becomes first F3 champion from USA after P2 in Madrid

Madrid, Sep 13 (IANS) Ugo Ugochukwu became the first American racer to win the Formula 3 title on Sunday after securing a second-place finish in the second feature race in Madrid.

Campos Racing driver Ugochukwu finished the championship with 159 points, while his rival Freddie Slater came second with 145 points. Tuukka Taponen took third in the drivers' list after winning the second feature race in Madrid.

Ugochukwu was delighted to bits after winning the F3 title. "We did it, FIA F3 Champions! Super, super happy, and I can't thank the team enough for an amazing year. Today was not a bad race with P2.

"We knew we just had to keep it clean to clinch the title, and that's what we did. No mistakes, brought it home and super pleased," he said.

Heading into the final F3 feature race, Audi's Slater Ugochukwu were tied on points, but the American held the tiebreaker advantage. This was after Slater failed to cross the finish line following a crash in the Saturday feature race.

Heading into the Sunday finale, the American 19-year-old started from second place, while Slater was further back in eighth and lost a place during the opening exchanges of the second feature race.

The Campos driver came second, while Slater finished eighth, the position from which he started the race, as Taponen won the second feature outing. This left the Finn driver third in the drivers' standings with 109 points, four clear of Taito Kato, who had 105 points to his name.

Earlier, Campos Racing had also secured the 2026 Teams' title after Ugochukwu finished fourth, with Ernesto Rivera and Théophile Nael coming eighth and ninth for Campos Racing in the first feature race.

Following Sunday's race, Campos Racing finished with 334 points, while Trident came second with 217 points.

--IANS

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