Pin edges Al Qubaisi by 0.001s in F1 Academy testing at Losail

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Doriane Pin pipped Hamda Al Qubaisi to the fastest lap by 0.001 seconds in F1 Academy’s three-day in-season test at Losail.

For an unexplained reason, the championship hid the name of the driver who started the test on top in Tuesday morning’s session.

The Prema pilot posted a 1m58.770s on their penultimate lap, which put them 0.056s up on MP Motorsport’s Al Qubaisi. The top five was covered by 0.343s, with Rodin Motorsport’s Abbi Pulling sandwiched by Prema pair Maya Weug and Pin.

MP’s Emely de Heus caused red flags in the session by stopping at turn 11.

The pace was lowered significantly in the afternoon session, which ended after the sun set, and Pin moved to the top with a 1m56.848s lap.

Red flags disrupted running multiple times, with the final stoppage caused by ART Grand Prix’s Bianca Bustamante striking trouble at turn 15, but during the spells of green flag action drivers were able to set personal best laptimes and some did it late on before the session was stopped entirely.

Pin ended up fastest by 0.286s over her unnamed team-mate, with Weug 0.326s behind. Points leader Pulling was half a second off the pace in fourth, and Prema’s Tina Hausmann and Al Qubaisi were the only others lapping within a second of Pin.

Laptimes were slower again on Wednesday morning, a 1m57.177s set late on enough for Pin to be fastest by four tenths of a second. Pulling was her closest rival, and only 0.191s split her and the unnamed Prema driver in sixth.

MP’s Amna Al Qubaisi was responsible for bringing out red flags and ended up slowest, while Rodin’s Lola Lovinfosse set her best lap of the day on just her fourth tour of the track and could not get any faster on the 26 laps she subsequently completed over Wednesday.

In the afternoon session it was Pulling who was fastest, by a tiny margin. She set a 1m57.183s to edge Weug by 0.041s and Pin by 0.043s. The unnamed Prema driver was 0.191s back in fourth, and 0.675s covered the top nine.

Pulling moved into first place overall on Thursday morning, setting a 1m56.769s. Pin improved by 0.025s to sit second, with Hamda Al Qubaisi and Weug also breaking the 1m57s barrier. The field was a lot closer together, and a lot of personal best laptimes were set, with Lovinfosse only one second slower than Pulling in 13th.

This time red flags were used during track clear-up, as gravel had got onto the asphalt at turn 15, the fast penultimate corner of the track.

Pin reclaimed her place at the top in the smallest possible way by beating Hamda Al Qubaisi by a thousandth of a second in the afternoon session, and Pulling was only a further 0.047s behind in third.

Campos Racing’s Chloe Chambers and the unnamed Prema improved by lapping sub-1m57s, and Weug was 0.001s short of matching her morning effort. Rodin’s Jessica Edgar and de Heus were also non-improvers.

Test results