GB3: Bianca Bustamante completes another weekend of progress in Spa

Bianca Bustamante completed another weekend of progress in the GB3 Championship's third round at Spa Francorchamps, as the Filipina racer continued to make steps forward, showcasing improved pace and engaging in close battles in the midfield while persevering through a hand injury.

Photo credits: JEP

Bianca Bustamante completed another weekend of progress in the GB3 Championship, as the Filipina racer continued to make steps forward, showcasing improved pace and engaging in close battles nearer the midfield. Climbing the order in all races and persevering through a painful injury and some misfortunes, she secured two top-20 finishes at the iconic Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

Bustamante is tackling her debut season in the GB3 Championship in 2025 with Elite Motorsport, following two competitive years in the all-female F1 Academy, where she claimed two victories and finished seventh overall in both 2023 and 2024. The move marks a crucial step in her career as she transitions to the more powerful Tatuus MSV GB3-025 car, competing in a high-quality mixed-gender field and learning some of Europe’s most iconic circuits.

Her first outing at Silverstone was hampered by a crash in qualifying that ruled her out of race one, but she bounced back with two solid finishes, including a P19 in race three. Bustamante then showed clear progress in round two at Zandvoort, delivering her best performance to date with a P13 finish in the final race of the weekend—evidence of her growing confidence and adaptation to the challenges of the GB3 series.

That progress continued at Spa, a circuit she previously raced at in Italian F4. Across testing and practice, Bustamante showed encouraging pace, often running within the top 20 and significantly closing the gap to the front runners, continuing her upward trend from Zandvoort.

However, an incident in Thursday practice resulted in a painful injury to her right hand, forcing her to push through the weekend in discomfort. Despite the setback, she never backed down.

In Friday’s first qualifying session, Bustamante set a 2:21.106 as her first representative lap. The session was disrupted early when Hillspeed’s Freddie Slater, who had topped most of the pre-event sessions, stopped on track, bringing out double yellow flags. After a short green flag period, a three-car incident at the Bus Stop chicane involving Lucas Fluxa, Deagen Fairclough, and Hiyu Yamakoshi brought the session to an early end with four minutes remaining. The session was not restarted, and Bustamante finished P19.

In Q2, she improved steadily throughout the session, initially clocking a 2:18.083 before further improving to a 2:16.674. She ended the session again in P19, in a solid effort.

The first 25-minute race got underway on a sunny Saturday morning in the Ardennes. Lining up P19 on the grid, Bustamante had a clean start as all 23 cars funneled safely through La Source, with many then going two- or three-wide along the Kemmel Straight.

She initially lost ground to drivers recovering from crashes in qualifying but soon regained positions, passing Jackes and Nandan. A collision involving Nandan at Les Combes brought out the safety car at the end of lap one, and racing resumed at the end of lap three. Jackes, showing strong pace, passed Bustamante at the restart, but she fought back one lap later to reclaim P21.

Setting competitive sector times, she chased down and overtook Bostandjiev on lap five and began matching the pace of Al Azhari ahead. With six minutes to go, a collision between Jack Sherwood and Nikita Johnson at Turn 1 triggered another safety car, and Bustamante moved up two more positions to P18 by lap seven.

On the final lap, while leaders Ninovic, Schwarze, and Macintyre battled for the podium—Bustamante held off pressure from Jackes and crossed the line in P18, just three tenths behind reigning F1 Academy champion Abbi Pulling.

It was a strong race for the Filipina, who made confident passes and showed solid racecraft. Unfortunately, a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage dropped her to P20 in the final classification.

Photo credits: JEP

The second race took place in the afternoon under cloudy skies, but the track remained dry despite earlier rain. Bustamante once again started from P19. Championship leader Alex Ninovic jumped into the lead from third on the grid, while Bustamante had a more difficult start and dropped to P23 after Turn 1. However, she quickly closed in on Nandan and began pressuring the cars ahead.

On lap two, she overtook both Nandan and Jackes, running strong 2:18 lap times as she chased Sherwood, who was just a second ahead. Meanwhile, at the front, Kanato Le reclaimed the lead on lap four with a move at the end of the Kemmel Straight.

Bustamante caught Sherwood and made a successful move for P20 on lap five, then immediately passed Bostandjiev to lead a five-car train. Sherwood fought back on lap six, with the two swapping places and attempting to break away from the group behind.

In the final laps, Bianca couldn’t quite respond to Sherwood’s counterattack but maintained a safe gap to Nandan and brought the car home in P20, wrapping up another consistent drive.

The final race of the weekend took place on a damp Sunday morning with mixed tyre strategies across the grid. Half the field opted for slicks, while the rest—including Bustamante—started on wets. Pole-sitter Hugo Schwarze and front-row starter Kai Daryanani also chose wets.

Three drivers, including Fairclough, switched to slicks after the formation lap and started from the pitlane. The track was still wet, and there was visible spray, but the opening laps were clean.

Bustamante got a great start, gaining two positions on the opening lap and moving into P18. Early on, the wet tyres appeared to be the better choice, and she continued to close in on Bostandjiev ahead. However, the track dried rapidly, and by lap two, slick-shod drivers like Fairclough were already lapping several seconds quicker.

Bianca overtook Bostandjiev on lap two to move into P17, then gained another position when Schwarze pitted for slicks. She passed Sherwood on lap four to climb to P15, showing strong pace.

Recognizing the changing conditions, Bustamante pitted at the end of lap four for slick tyres. Unfortunately, on her outlap—where grip was still unpredictable—she got stuck in the gravel, ending her race prematurely. Despite a DNF, her pace showed promise in both dry and slippery conditions, having ran as high as 15th.

The third round may not have delivered the standout result of Zandvoort, but it represented another step forward for the Elite Motorsport driver. Bustamante is increasingly closer to the midfield, and her Spa-Francorchamps performance demonstrated her ability to fight and make up ground despite adversities.

In a car that is physically demanding and on one of the world’s most challenging circuits, Bustamante showed glimpses of her potential; while not always reflected in the final results, she can take pride in being firmly on the right development path.

The next round will be held at the Hungaroring—a circuit she previously raced at during her W Series debut in 2022.