Madrid, Sep 13 (SocialNews.XYZ) United States teenager Ugo Ugochukwu hailed his and Campos Racing's consistency and the year-long work that went into winning the Formula 3 title on Sunday.
Ugochukwu finished second in the second feature race in Madrid and became the first United States racer to win the F3 championship, while Tuukka Taponen secured his maiden F3 win in the final race of the year.
Ugochukwu had a strong chance of winning the title after his rival, Freddie Slater, scored no points in the first feature race on Saturday and started from P8 in the second feature race, while Ugochukwu was second on the grid.
Ugochukwu stated that he was in good stead to win the title, but did not take things lightly. "It is hard. In a way, I knew I was in a good position to get the championship today, and I knew what I needed to do to win the title, but I was not fully relaxed. You think about all the little things that can happen and that you need to stay on top of," the 19-year-old American told F3.
"Today was executed quite well. I knew I had a good chance on the inside to maybe go for the lead at the start, but Tuukka did a good job defending his position. From there, it felt like a very long race. I just had to manage the tyre and the gap to the drivers behind me. That is what we did. To win the championship is a testament to the consistency and the job we have done throughout the year."
Ugochukwu started the final race from P2 but kept it safe at the start to avoid any jump-starts or other hiccups, as he was mostly in control of his fate. "For sure, a clean start was on our minds. We could not afford a stall, a jump start or anything like that. Getting into the lead at the start would still have been nice because controlling from the front is always a little easier and cleaner, but I knew I just had to adapt to whatever situation I was in.
"Whether that was P2 or P3, I just managed the race as best as I could. I tried to make a move later on and put on a bit of pressure, but Tuukka was quick in the right places and I could not get quite close enough. Qualifying was the key to this weekend, and we executed that well to put ourselves in a good position today on such a tricky track," he added.
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.
Earlier, Campos Racing had also secured the 2026 Teams' title after Ugochukwu finished fourth and Ernesto Rivera and Théophile Nael came eighth and ninth for Campos Racing in the first feature race.
Source: IANS
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