Chambers claims third successive F1 Academy pole in Montreal

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Campos Racing’s Chloe Chambers claimed her third successive F1 Academy pole position in Montreal qualifying.

As in free practice, it was a battle between Chambers and team-mate Alisha Palmowski to be quickest and they ended the half-hour session as the top two.

Points leader Maya Weug was absent from that fight in practice due to an electrical issue, and there was a full 18-car field on track as Mathilda Paatz joined Hitech GP as a wildcard driver.

The 16-year-old German was a points-free 20th in French Formula 4 last season, and 31st in Formula Winter Series earlier this year.

Chambers was the early pacesetter in qualifying, then MP Motorsport’s Alba Hurup Larsen became the first to break into the 1m40s.

There was far more pace to find, and soon Larsen was lapping in the 1m39s. After several more improvements she had a big gap at the top with a 1m39.246s lap, but that was later deleted and she ended qualifying in 12th.

The deletion meant Palmowski was promoted into provisional pole approaching the session’s halfway point, having set a 1m39.26s.

Chambers soon beat that, then Palmowski improved to 1m38.749s in response. Next time by there was another personal best from Chambers, but it was not enough to reclaim first place.

Rather than go for a cooldown lap, she went for another flyer and this time she moved back ahead by less than 0.1 seconds. But Palmowski had the same strategy and lowered the pace.

Their battle for pole would continue to the end, with Chambers setting a 1m38.125s with a few minutes to go and Palmowski setting a 1m38.43s at the very end to ensure she qualified second.

Prema’s Doriane Pin was the only other driver within half a second of Chambers’ pace, with Ella Lloyd (Rodin Motorsport) and Tina Hausmann (Prema) completing the top five. Paatz and Weug were 14th and 15th.

Qualifying results