Taito Kato finishes P9 in the Sprint Race in Madrid
MadringOn Saturday 12 September, the Sprint Race for FIA F3 Round 9 was held at the new Madring circuit in Spain.
Madring
Madring, the venue for the final round of the 2026 FIA F3 season, is a newly built semi-street circuit in Madrid, the capital of Spain. The approximately 5.4km circuit features 22 corners and includes around 1.5km of public-road sections. With the walls close to the track, precision is required in both car set-up and driving.
Sprint Race: P12 on the grid → P9
The 16-lap Sprint Race got underway at 11:05am on Saturday 12 September, with an ambient temperature of 21°C and a track temperature of 35°C. The top 12 from Qualifying 1 were reversed for the starting grid, meaning Kato, who had taken pole position, started from P12. He gained one position on the opening lap to move up to P11.
The leading group then remained closely packed, but with little change in the running order on a track around which overtaking proved difficult. On Lap 12, while running P11, Kato used DRS to overtake Tuukka Taponen (MP Motorsport) at Turn 4 and move up to P10. He then closed the gap to Ugo Ugochukwu (Campos Racing) in P9 from around 3.5 seconds to just over one second, but completed the 16 laps in P10.
Enzo Deligny (Van Amersfoort Racing), who took the chequered flag in P7, was handed a 10-second time penalty, promoting Kato to P9 in the final classification.
Overall, it was a very strong weekend, back to back from Monza. The pace was strong straight from FP. I was able to consistently fight at the front, and the car performance was also very strong. We had good confidence going into qualifying.I was able to take pole position, and in Qualifying 2, I was P4. Overall, the car performed very well, and I was able to adapt well to the different conditions between FP and qualifying. We were always fighting for pole position, so I think it was a strong performance.For the Sprint Race, starting from P12, we knew it was going to be very difficult to overtake at this track. The aim was to avoid crashes and bring the car home. I was able to gain some positions and finish P9, which was a great result considering how difficult it is to overtake here.We were also able to score two important points in the Sprint Race from P12. Overall, it was a strong race.
Overall, it was a very strong weekend, back to back from Monza. The pace was strong straight from FP. I was able to consistently fight at the front, and the car performance was also very strong. We had good confidence going into qualifying.I was able to take pole position, and in Qualifying 2, I was P4. Overall, the car performed very well, and I was able to adapt well to the different conditions between FP and qualifying. We were always fighting for pole position, so I think it was a strong performance.For the Sprint Race, starting from P12, we knew it was going to be very difficult to overtake at this track. The aim was to avoid crashes and bring the car home. I was able to gain some positions and finish P9, which was a great result considering how difficult it is to overtake here.We were also able to score two important points in the Sprint Race from P12. Overall, it was a strong race.
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