Gademan starts F1 Academy season at Shanghai with victory

Photo: F1 Academy

MP Motorsport’s Nina Gademan claimed her second F1 Academy victory in the season-opening race at Shanghai.

Gademan made good use of reversed-grid pole to lead into the race’s first corner ahead of fellow front-row starter and single-seater debutant Natalia Granada, while ART Grand Prix’s Lisa Billard bogged down from the second row and lost four places.

Campos Racing’s Rafaela Ferreira claimed third ahead of Prema’s Payton Wescott, and Friday’s qualifying dominator Alisha Palmowski gained one place to seventh by passing Billard during lap one.

Palmowski tried to gain a further position on lap three from MP’s Alba Hurup Larsen at the hairpin but could not get by, and Wescott dived up the inside of Ferreira into the same corner on the following lap but ran wide and dropped back into fourth.

Gademan, meanwhile, built an early one-second advantage over Prema’s Granada, who slightly reduced the deficit approaching the halfway stage.

The safety car was deployed at the end of lap seven after Larsen tagged the rear of Rodin Motorsport’s Emma Felbermayr at turn four and lost her front wing, resulting in the Ferrari junior tumbling to ninth.

Racing resumed one lap later once the marshals had removed the debris from the circuit, and Larsen immediately ran through the gravel at the restart, losing further places before eventually pitting for a new front wing.

Gademan maintained the lead for the remaining five laps to finish 0.624 seconds clear of Granada, who scored a podium in an impressive debut.

Felbermayr battled her way past Wescott into fourth with three laps to go, the latter then running wide and losing a further place to Palmowski, and she then passed Ferreira on the final lap to take third at the chequered flag.

Ferreira held onto fourth ahead of Palmowski, who locked up and almost ran into her team-mate with two corners to go. Wescott came home sixth, while Rodin’s Ella Lloyd climbed three places to seventh ahead of Billard, who prevailed in a frenetic late battle with Hitech GP duo Ava Dobson and Rachel Robertson and Rodin’s Ella Stevens.

Race results (13 laps)