Photo: F1 Academy
MP Motorsport’s Hamda Al Qubaisi was fastest in both F1 Academy qualifying sessions at Zandvoort.
She moved to the top of the times in Q1 with her fourth lap, putting her 0.774 seconds up on sister and team-mate Amna, and 0.996s ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Lena Buhler in third halfway through the 15-minute session.
There was not an improvement in pace after that until Al Qubaisi’s seventh lap, with with just under two minutes of the session to go, but her margin at the top was cut as her 1m36.572s was followed by Buhler setting a 1m37.003s.
Moments later MP’s Emely de Heus rose to third place, 1.244s off the pace, and ART GP’s Carrie Schreiner moved into fifth.
Prema’s Marta Garcia took over third with 85s left of Q1, setting a 1m37.015s, and her team-mate Bianca Bustamante went sixth fastest. However when the chequered flag came out they were shuffled down the order.
Al Qubaisi failed to improve but remained unbeaten, Buhler improved to get within 0.098s of her, Campos Racing’s Nerea Marti set a 1m36.829s to qualify third, de Heus improved her pace but not her position in fifth, and Rodin Carlin’s Jessica Edgar qualified sixth with a 1m37.284s lap.
Amna Al Qubaisi set a personal best on her final effort but was only eighth, while Carlin’s Abbi Pulling was 1.471s off the pace down in 12th place.
Campos’s Maite Caceres set the early benchmarks in Q2, and was only bumped from top spot with 6m44s to go by a 1m38.429s from Gilkes.
However only four drivers had posted laptimes by that point, and two minutes later the timesheet looked very different with Buhler on provisional pole with a 1m36.262s, 0.328s ahead of Garcia, and Gilkes was down in seventh.
Buhler improved to 1m35.962s but Hamda Al Qubaisi went even faster, setting a 1m35.926s. De Heus sat in third with 2m27s of Q2 to go, and seconds later the red flags were out due to an issue for fourth-placed Garcia.
The session did not restart, meaning Al Qubaii took pole by 0.036s and with a top six covered by 0.925s. This time Pulling was 11th.
Qualifying round-up
Q1 results
1 Hamda Al Qubaisi MP Motorsport 1m36.572s
2 Lena Buhler ART Grand Prix +0.098s
3 Nerea Marti Campos Racing +0.257s
4 Marta Garcia Prema +0.321s
5 Emely de Heus MP Motorsport +0.429s
6 Jessica Edgar Carlin +0.712s
7 Carrie Schreiner ART Grand Prix +0.811s
8 Amna Al Qubaisi MP Motorsport +0.973s
9 Bianca Bustamante Prema +1.071s
10 Megan Gilkes Carlin +1.133s
Q2 results
1 Al Qubaisi 1m35.926s
2 Buhler +0.036s
3 De Heus +0.494s
4 Garcia +0.502s
5 Edgar +0.773s
6 Marti +0.925s
7 Chloe Grant ART Grand Prix +1.229s
8 Bustamante +1.343s
9 Gilkes +1.460s
10 Lola Lovinfosse Campos Racing +1.492s