Bustamante posts best finish in Eurocup-3 despite wing damage
MANILA, Philippines — Bianca Bustamante has delivered her strongest weekend to date in the 2026 Eurocup-3 Championship, headlined by a remarkable recovery drive during Round 2 at Portimao on the first week of June.
Racing the all-new Dallara 326 with Palou Motorsport in partnership with PREMA Racing, Bustamante impressively turned an incident that could have easily derailed her entire race one into a personal best race result.
After qualifying P25 in the 30-car field for the first race of the weekend last Saturday, she made a stellar start to reach P20 before contact from the rear spun her around on the opening lap. Dropping dead last to P30 with front wing endplate damage, the 21-year-old refused to yield, instead launching an aggressive fightback.
“It has been such a dream walking away from the weekend with my best result in Eurocup-3. Honestly, Saturday was a rollercoaster. I thought the race was over when we got spun from the rear and dropped to P30 with wing damage. But we fought back, pushed to catch the pack, and I really had the race of my life so far,” Bustamante said.
Capitalizing on her Push to Pass allocations, setting up strong corner exits, and navigating multiple Safety Car restarts, she steadily worked her way through the pack — sometimes overtaking as many as three cars at a time, to cross the line in P14.
That momentum continued into Sunday where Bustamante delivered her closest qualifying performance of the year: securing P21 on the grid, she was just one-tenth of a second away from P15, highlighting the incredibly tight margins of the Eurocup-3 field. In a chaotic Race 2, she demonstrated consistent pace and executed several clean overtakes to secure a solid P18 finish.
“Sunday also showed how insanely competitive this championship is with my closest qualifying performance yet. I love racing and the challenge it brings. For some a P14 might be a little thing, but those around me know how hard we’ve worked to make these gains on track in such a strong and competitive grid, so we have to celebrate the small wins along the way. I am honestly hungry for it now more than ever. Now it is time to reset and head to Collective Testing in Aragon before we head to Imola — I can’t wait,” Bianca added.
As the only female driver on the Eurocup-3 grid, Bustamante is facing no small challenge as part of the highly competitive European single-seater pathway, but she is determined to tackle it head-on with an intensive off-track training program as well as working closely with her team to refine her race craft through intense data debriefs and onboard analysis.
She is now at the series’ Collective Testing at Aragon, then will travel to Imola, Italy for Round 3 of the season scheduled July 3-5.
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