Spaniard Martí and Frenchwoman Lovinfosse added more points to their tally at the third event of F1 Academy held at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya this weekend

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Mercantile Campos Racing fought for more podium finishes at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which this weekend hosted Round 3 of F1 Academy Series. Nerea Martí, Lola Lovinfosse and Maite Cáceres performed well at the wheel of their Tatuus machinery and the Spanish-based racing team brought valuable points home.

On Friday, Martí was 2^nd fastest in FP1 with a lap time of 1m42.627s and ranked 3^rd in the timesheets in FP2 with a best lap of 1m43.191s. Lovinfosse lapped in competitive pace since the very beginning and posted the 7^th and 5^th fastest times in both sessions.

Saturday got more serious yet with both qualifying sessions in the morning. In Q1, Martí put a lap together of 1m41.718s, which left her in 8^th place and, more importantly, granted the pole position for race 2. Uruguay’s Cáceres clocked a best time of 1m42.936s and set to start from row 7 and, unfortunately, Lovinfosse couldn’t put a single qualifying lap together and would have to start from the back of the grid. In Q2, Martí lowered her personal best time but still couldn’t improve her grid position. With a time of 1m41.480s, Martí would line up 8^th for Race 3. Lovinfosse qualified right behind in ninth place with a lap time of 1m41.505s and Cáceres was who failed to post a qualifying time this time.

Race 1 saw how the drivers of Mercantile Campos Racing moved through the field in the struggle for points. After 16 laps, Martí took the checkered flag in sixth place and Lovinfosse also gained several places to finish in 8^th place. Cáceres ended up in 13^th place.

From pole position, Martí was pushing for her first win of the season in the series. At the start, Anna Al Qubaisi moved past Martí for the lead but the Spaniard remained in her slipstream for most of the race. When the race was coming to an end, the driver of Mercantile Campos Racing struggled with tire wear and dropped several places to 6^th. From the back of the grid, Lovinfosse could another recovery drive to finish in ninth place. Cáceres came in 13^th.

Sunday’s race 3 would be another exciting one. Lovinfosse was one of the eye-catchers drivers in the field and cruised to fifth place at the end of the 16-lap race after overtaking several rivals in remarkable fashion. Martí took the checkered flag in seventh place to secure more points. Cáceres clinched her best result of the weekend by finishing in 12^th place.

After three events out of 7, Martí sits in 6^th place in the standings on 70 points. Lovinfosse is currently lying in tenth place. Meantime, Campos Racing is 5^th in the teams’ standings on 94 points.

The F1 Academy will visit Zandvoort for round 4 on 24-25 June.