Bianca Bustamante fights back in Portugal to claim best Eurocup-3 finish

Official Release
12 hours ago
3 min read

Bustamante claimed P14 in a 30 car field with an impressive comeback drive
The rising Filipina racing star’s weekend also featured her strongest qualifying performance yet
The 21-year-old continues to make steady progress with Palou Motorsport as the sole female driver in the Eurocup-3 Championship

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 Portimão on June 5-7.

Racing the all-new Dallara 326 with Palou Motorsport in partnership with PREMA Racing, Bustamante impressively turned an incident which 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, held 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.

Capitalising 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.

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.

Bustamante will now head into the series’ Collective Testing at Aragon next weekend, before heading to Imola (Italy) for round three of the season across July 3-5. To learn more about Bustamante, please visit www.biancabustamante.com

Bianca Bustamante

Driver - Palou Motorsport

"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. Sunday also showed how insanely competitive this championship is with my closest qualifying performance yet. Most importantly, we worked with all we had to make steps forward in all areas thanks to the great support of my team at Palou Motorsport. 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!"