Lia Block becomes an F1 Academy race-winner on Singapore streets

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ART Grand Prix’s Lia Block has ended her wait for a first F1 Academy victory on the streets of Singapore.

There were two changes to Hitech GP’s line-up for the event, with Aiva Anagnostiadis being replaced by Megan Bruce while Lisa Billard was called up to drive the wildcard entry.

Anagnostiadis was unable to take part due to fracturing her left foot, and Bruce has missed a round of her GB4 campaign to debut in F1 Academy. She is currently 16th in the GB4 standings with a best finish of fourth.

Billard raced part-time in French Formula 4 in 2024, then came 19th in the championship this year.

Free practice in Singapore took place during daylight hours, and Doriane Pin set a 2m03.944s to lead Maya Weug by 0.022 seconds and Alisha Palmowski by 0.051s. Chloe Chambers trailed by 0.516s, and Ella Lloyd was the only other driver within a second of the pace.

There was cooler conditions for qualifying on Friday evening, and Weug posted a 2m03.453s to pip Pin to pole by 0.042s.

Chambers improved to be just 0.189s behind, Lloyd was 0.731s off, then Billard was 0.9s slower than Weug and Emma Felbermayr was 0.924s back in sixth. Title outsider Palmowski qualified last.

A reversed grid was used for race one on Saturday afternoon, putting Lia Block on pole ahead of Aurelia Nobels and Felbermayr.

The start was delayed by 23 minutes, and on the opening lap the top two, Lloyd and Nina Gademan cut the first corners entirely then the safety car was summoned as Nicole Havrda crashed out.

Racing resumed on lap three and Block nailed the restart. Chambers tried passing Felbermayr around the outside at turn one for third but was forced off, and after rejoining the track got ahead at turn five.

Chambers went off later in the lap and lost out to Weug, then forced Felbermayr off and she lost out to Lloyd. Billard was spun around at turn one so fell down the order. Block began to pull away, and was 1.9s clear by the end of lap six.

Weug had tried passing Nobels at turn 14 on that lap then got alongside again at the next corner. The move was completed by having the inside line for turn 16, and right behind Chambers locked up while trying to hold off Lloyd. They touched wheels after turn 17, and held their positions.

The safety car returned on lap seven as Billard stopped with a smoking car and Palmowski’s charge came to an end. She had gone from 14th to 10th on lap three, then repeatedly set fastest laps.

Palmowski overtook Chloe Chong at turn one on lap six, then on lap seven her front-right wheel locked up and it sent her into the barriers and then the run-off with damage to her car’s rear.

The next restart was on lap 10 of 14, and Nobels got defensive down the pit straight but ended up carrying too much speed into turn one and went off. She rejoined behind Chambers and Lloyd, as Pin overtook Felbermayr for sixth.

Pin’s next target was Nobels, and cleared her early in lap 11. But she got back past, then gained a place as Lloyd got a five-second penalty for gaining an unfair advantage with her lap one off.

The top three broke clear, with Chambers playing around with her brake bias to keep up the pace, and Pin was unable to attack Nobels again but did steal the fastest lap.

Rafaela Ferreira stopped on track three times, and retired in the pits after being shown the black-and-orange flag. The last classified finisher was Alba Hurup Larsen, who had a 10s penalty for causing a collision and after that had another clash with Joanna Ciconte.

Race results (14 laps)