Felbermayr wins dramatic F1 Academy race two at Shanghai

Photo: F1 Academy

Rodin Motorsport’s Emma Felbermayr claimed an early F1 Academy lead by winning an incident-filled second race at Shanghai.

Felbermayr profited from Alba Hurup Larsen’s mistake at a mid-race safety car restart to take her second victory ahead of Campos Racing’s Alisha Palmowski, with Prema’s Payton Wescott completing the podium.

Palmowski was slow away from pole when the lights went out, allowing MP Motorsport’s Larsen to immediately snatch first place from the inside of the front row, and Felbermayr squeezed past Palmowski into second.

Wescott also challenged Palmowski through turn four but lost out on the outside to run fourth ahead of Campos’s Rafaela Ferreira, who locked up and ran wide at the hairpin before the opening lap was completed.

Prema’s debutant Natalia Granada, who was side-by-side with MP’s Nina Gademan, had nowhere to go and lost her front wing by tagging the rear of Ferreira’s car and headed for the pitlane one corner later.

Larsen took advantage of an early wheel-to-wheel battle between Felbermayr and Palmowski to pull out a 1.9-second advantage during the first four laps.

That gap was whittled down to 1.2s over the next two tours before the safety car was deployed as a result of a two-car crash at the hairpin, where ART Grand Prix’s Jade Jaquet locked up under braking and slammed into the rear of MP’s Esmee Kosterman, putting both drivers out on the spot.

There was more drama when the safety car peeled into the pitlane with five laps to go. Larsen got a snap of oversteer through the final corner and ran wide through the gravel, slipping to eighth, and a subsequent battle with the pursuing Megan Bruce prevented her from recovering any positions from there.

Felbermayr spent the closing laps under pressure from Palmowski, though she faced a brief reprieve due to yellow flags when wildcard driver Shi Wei retired with rear suspension damage at the hairpin after being collected by her Hitech GP team-mate Rachel Robertson.

The incident was cleared before the leaders arrived at that corner on the penultimate lap, with Palmowski jinking out of Felbermayr’s slipstream at the end of the back straight but opted not to make a move.

Felbermayr defended the middle of the road into the hairpin on the final tour, and she held off Palmowski on the exit before taking the chequered flag with a 0.252s winning margin. Wescott finished within one second of the front two, while Saturday’s race one victor Gademan finished a further two seconds behind in fourth.

Rodin’s Ella Lloyd climbed from 10th to fifth, her recovery drive including an early double overtake on the squabbling Ferreira and Billard, the pair eventually following the McLaren junior home. Hitech’s Ava Dobson finished 10th behind Larsen and Campos driver Bruce.

Race results (13 laps)