Chambers leads Campos 1-2 in F1 Academy’s Las Vegas qualifying

Photo: Red Bull

Campos Racing’s Chloe Chambers claimed pole for the F1 Academy season finale in qualifying on Las Vegas’s Strip circuit last night.

There were two changes to Hitech GP’s line-up prior to the event, the first being injury-induced. The team’s regular driver Aiva Anagnostiadis had been ruled out of the previous round in Singapore due to fracturing her foot, and after she had surgery on it she had several weeks to recover before the finale.

However it was clear after the surgery that a return would not be possible, and Hitech announced in early November that Rachel Robertson would replace her for this weekend. Anagnostiadis sits 16th in the F1 Academy standings, while Robertson is currently 14th in the Hitech-operated Saudi Arabian Formula 4 championship.

Hitech also runs F1 Academy’s wildcard entry, and Payton Westcott was chosen to drive it on home soil in Las Vegas. She was a non-scorer across full campaigns in Formula Winter Series, E4 and Italian F4 this year.

The Las Vegas event kicked off in the early evening on Thursday with a 40-minute practice session. Prema’s Doriane Pin was the driver to beat most of the time, and while Campos’s Alisha Palmowski was first to lap sub-2m10s she was swiftly outpaced by Pin.

MP Motorsport’s Maya Weug then moved ahead with a 2m09.045s, before Palmowski and Chambers moved into the top two places. Pin reclaimed top spot by setting a 2m08.606s, then she lowered the pace to 2m07.967s.

In the final 10 minutes, Chambers crashed after a shock suspension failure on the run to turn one and it triggered red flags. That locked in the session classification, with Chambers in third behind Pin and Weug.

The half-hour qualifying session began before 10pm, and Rodin Motorsport’s Ella Lloyd was first to the top. Weug was next to lead the way, then Pin went 0.42s clear approaching the session’s halfway mark.

Chambers demoted Weug to third before ending her first run, then started disputing pole position with Pin once back on track. The pace improved to a level Weug could not match, until she got a tow from team-mate Alba Hurup Larsen and lapped 0.044s shy of Chambers’ benchmark at the time.

In response, Chambers lowered the pace by over 0.4s. Pin wanted to channel Weug’s tactics with her team-mates but was less successful in getting what she needed, while Campos’s drivers got the gaps they needed and a 2m06.538s earned Chambers pole for the season-ending race two by 0.38s over Palmowski.

Larsen was a further 0.017s back in third, Pin ended up 0.44s off pole and Weug was 0.656s slower than Chambers in fifth.

As the eighth fastest driver, Prema’s Nina Gademan will start on pole for the reversed-grid race one on Friday.

Qualifying results