Doriane Pin dominates her first F1 Academy qualifying session in Jeddah

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Doriane Pin dominated her debut F1 Academy qualifying session in Jeddah, the Mercedes Formula 1 junior taking a double pole position.

Coming into the series after some strong early Formula 4 outings in Asia over the winter, Pin led the morning’s practice session by 0.212 seconds and quickly took control of qualifying inside the first 10 minutes.

At that stage, Abbi Pulling was the only driver within a second of Pin’s time and looked set to challenge it mid-session until a big lockup.

With six minutes to go, Pin improved her previous best by over a second, setting a 2m03.472s. Although she would not match that time, she also set the fastest second-best time to secure a double pole.

Following her Prema team-mate on track, fellow series debutant Maya Weug leapt up from last to second, still 1.2s adrift, with Pulling then narrowly bettering that effort to regain P2.

Ferrari protege Weug cut the gap to Pin to a second on her next attempt before Rodin’s Alpine-backed Pulling went even quicker to clinch second place, finishing up 0.785s from pole.

Four different drivers took turns in fourth in the final four minutes, Nerea Marti eventually winning out ahead of Bianca Bustamante, Lola Lovinfosse and another series debutant, Lia Block. Two more newcomers, Chloe Chambers and Aurelia Nobels, were next ahead of Jessica Edgar.

MP Motorsport had a torrid session with its three Red Bull-supported drivers, Hamda Al Qubaisi the fastest of them in 13th, 2.5s down on Pin.

Qualifying result