Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the venue for Round 3, features a well-balanced layout combining straights, low-speed corners and high-speed corners. With relatively mild winter conditions, it is also used for pre-season testing across various categories, including F1. FIA F3 also held a three-day test at the circuit before the start of this season, where Kato recorded the third-fastest time overall.

Qualifying

The 30-minute qualifying session began at 3:00 pm on Friday 12 June. Track temperatures were high at 49°C, and many drivers completed three attack runs while making adjustments over two pit stops.

Kato, who had finished fifth in Free Practice earlier in the day, 0.681 seconds off the fastest time, was again in contention near the front in qualifying. On his first run, he set a 1m29.198s on lap 3, around 0.4 seconds behind the provisional fastest time. After pitting once, he improved to 1m28.731s on his second attack on lap 7. He then made another pit stop before his final run on lap 11, where, despite being affected by traffic, he lowered his time to 1m28.500s and ended qualifying in fifth, around 0.2 seconds off the fastest time.

As a result, Kato will start the Sprint Race (Race 1) from eighth and the Feature Race (Race 2) from fifth.

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