Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Prema’s Marta Garcia moved closer to the inaugural F1 Academy title with two wins at Paul Ricard.
Rodin Carlin’s Abbi Pulling took pole for race one by the tighest of margins, with just 0.032 seconds splitting herself and Campos Racing’s Nerea Marti.
Lola Lovinfosse (Campos) was 0.057s off pole in third and Lena Buhler (ART Grand Prix) was 0.072s back in fourth, while Garcia qualified 0.164s off the pace in sixth. The 15-car field was covered by 0.685s.
Marti took the lead from Pulling on the opening lap and quickly pulled away by two seconds. Pulling could match Marti’s pace after that, but did not reduce her lead until the second half of the 18-lap race.
She had reduced it to 1.562s by lap 14, and was 1.125s behind by the finish. Lovinfosse was a further 4.86s back in third, with no changes of position in the top seven bar Marti’s race-winning pass and Amna Al Qubaisi’s pass for seventh on lap one.
Amna started on reversed-grid pole for race two, and had Garcia quickly on her tail as she moved past Schreiner on lap one. The safety car was then out due to Lovinfosse stopping on track, and when racing eventually resumed on lap four Garcia immediately took the lead from Al Qubaisi.
Buhler passed Al Qubaisi a lap later but had no answer to Garcia’s pace and she won by 4.052s. Al Qubaisi held on to third, and her sister finished fourth after passing Shreiner on lap six of 11.
Schreiner finished sixth behind Marti, and just ahead of Pulling by 0.185s.
Buhler took pole for race three by 0.075s over Pulling, with Lovinfosse and Garcia 0.275 and 0.294 seconds behind respectively.
Garcia once again jumped up to second on the opening lap, and took the lead from Buhler on lap three. This time she streched out a lead of 3.93s over her title rival, and they head to the final round 48 points apart.
Lovinfosse ran third from start to finish for her third podium, Pulling dropped to fourth on lap one and stayed there, ahead of Marti and Hamda Al Qubaisi, who is the third title contender.
Bustamante was battling Schreiner for eighth mid-race when she dropped to last, and she could not recover.
Results round-up
Race 1 (18 laps)
1 Nerea Marti Campos Racing 26m15.684s
2 Abbi Pulling Carlin +1.125s
3 Lola Lovifosse Campos Racing +5.985s
4 Lena Buhler ART Grand Prix +6.240s
5 Hamda Al Qubaisi MP Motorsport +10.019s
6 Marta Garcia Prema +10.634s
7 Amna Al Qubaisi MP Motorsport +14.537s
8 Maite Caceres Campos Racing +21.395s
9 Carrie Schreiner ART Grand Prix +25.443s
10 Chloe Grant ART Grand Prix +26.247s
Pole: Pulling, 1m27.249s
Fastest lap: Marti, 1m26.970s
Race 2 (11 laps)
1 Garcia 17m06.215s
2 Buhler +4.052s
3 A Al Qubaisi +5.081s
4 H Al Qubaisi +5.736s
5 Marti +7.741s
6 Schreiner +11.810s
7 Pulling +11.995s
8 Jessica Edgar Carlin +12.134s
9 Emely de Heus MP Motorsport +12.843s
10 Bianca Bustamante Prema +14.399s
FL: Garcia, 1m27.015s
Race 3 (18 laps)
1 Garcia 26m17.536s
2 Buhler +3.930s
3 Lovinfosse +6.566s
4 Pulling +7.333s
5 Marti +7.687s
6 H Al Qubaisi +9.073s
7 Edgar +10.332s
8 A Al Qubaisi +18.573s
9 Schreiner +21.557s
10 Megan Gilkes Carlin +21.870s
P: Buhler, 1m26.785s
FL: Garcia, 1m27.036s
Championship standings
1 Garcia 235 2 Buhler 187 3 H Al Qubaisi 177 4 Marti 155 5 Pulling 155 6 A Al Qubaisi 110 7 Bustamante 102 8 de Heus 81 9 Edgar 68 10 Lovinfosse 63