Pin powers to victory in F1 Academy race two at Shanghai

Photo: F1 Academy

Prema’s Doriane Pin took her first win of the season and the points lead in the final F1 Academy race of the weekend at Shanghai.

Oil on the right-hand side of the grid resulted in a slightly shortened contest, which began with two formation laps behind the safety car and a rolling start.

MP Motorsport’s Maya Weug led the field away from pole but she was immediately passed by Pin who swept around the outside through the first two corners. The safety car soon returned to track following two lap one incidents towards the rear of the top 10.

Prema’s Nina Gademan tried to challenge Rodin Motorsport’s Emma Felbermayr into turn four but was hit by her team-mate Tina Hausmann who had been defending from the cars behind her. Gademan and Hausmann both spun around, and MP’s Joanne Ciconte was forced to take avoiding action.

Ciconte was tagged around two corners later by Rodin’s Chloe Chong and was then collected by both Hitech GP’s Nicola Havrda and ART Grand Prix’s Aurelia Nobels, with all three cars retiring on the spot with damage. 

Pin continued to lead when racing resumed on lap five, and she built a two-second advantage to Weug over the next two laps. She then maintained that gap until the chequered flag, with Weug finishing second.

A close battle raged for third in the race’s second half, with MP’s Alba Hurup Larsen facing pressure from Campos Racing’s Chloe Chambers, who took avoiding action into the hairpin on lap seven after braking slightly too late.

Chambers dived up the inside at the same corner on the next lap but ran wide, allowing Larsen to reclaim the position, but she then made another move stick into turn one at the start of the penultimate lap to snatch the final podium position from Larsen.

There was a similarly close battle for fifth, with Felbermayr passing Campos’s race one winner Alisha Palmowski into the final corner with two laps to go. Palmowski tried to fight back, but tagged the rear of Felbermayr’s car at turn three, though both cars continued without any damage.

Rodin’s Ella Lloyd benefitted from the lap one carnage to climb four places to seventh, coming home 5s behind Palmowski. Chong fended off Palmowski’s team-mate Rafaela Ferreira for eighth over the final two laps, but a 10s penalty for her part in the opening lap tangle demoted her to 11th at the finish.

ART’s Lia Block finished 0.2s behind Ferreira in ninth, with Gademan recovering to score the final point in 10th. Hausmann also received a 10s penalty for the collision with Gademan which left her as the last classified finisher in 15th.

Race result (11 laps)