Palmowski dominates F1 Academy qualifying at Shanghai

Photo: F1 Academy

Alisha Palmowski took her maiden pole in the all-female F1 Academy championship in the first qualifying session of the season at Shanghai.

The Campos Racing driver was 0.403 seconds faster than MP Motorsport’s Alba Hurup Larsen in second place, with Rodin Motorsport’s Emma Felbermayr taking third.

Palmowski had already comfortably topped free practice on Friday morning, producing a 2m04.550s lap in the closing stages of the 40-minute session to be 0.467s quicker than Larsen, who edged out Prema’s Payton Wescott by 0.024s. Campos’s Rafaela Ferreira was fourth ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Lisa Billard and Prema’s Mathilda Paatz, and less than one second covered the top 12.

Paatz put down an early benchmark of 2m09.275 in the 30-minute qualifying but that effort was soon beaten by Palmowski’s 2m05.592s, and Felbermayr almost immediately lowered the pace by a further 0.23s, while Paatz climbed to third.

Palmowski responded on her next lap by reclaiming top spot by almost 0.5s, as Rodin’s Ella Lloyd moved up to fourth before being shuffled back by her team-mate Ella Stevens and Billard. Lloyd improved to claim second with her next effort but was displaced by Billard once more, and MP’s Nina Gademan took fourth away from Felbermayr.

Larsen then moved into provisional pole approaching the halfway stage with a 2m04.651s, and the Ferrari junior was up on her time two sectors into her next lap but bailed out and headed for the pitlane.

Following a brief lull in the action, drivers returned to circuit on fresh tyres, but qualifying was red-flagged when ART’s Kaylee Countryman stopped with an issue on the back straight.

It did not take long to recover the stricken car and for the session to resume. Wescott briefly took second away from Palmowski, who then improved to a 2m04.637s to reclaim first place by 0.014s. The Briton then made sure of pole by bettering her time by almost half a second with three minutes remaining.

Larsen set a personal best on her final lap to slightly reduce the deficit to Palmowski, and Wescott was relegated to sixth late on by Felbermayr, Ferreira and Billard.

Gademan slipped to eighth behind Prema’s single-seater debutant Natalia Granada and provisionally took reversed-grid pole for Saturday’s season-opening race.

Hitech GP’s Ava Dobson pipped McLaren-backed duo Lloyd and Stevens to ninth – the trio separated by 0.007s.

Qualifying results