Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
F1 Academy rivals Abbi Pulling and Doriane Pin claimed a win each from a pair of races held in quick succession on Sunday at Zandvoort.
The first race was originally scheduled for Saturday afternoon, but heavy wind and rain blew in off the North Sea during the formation lap and the start was aborted. Teams took the chance to fit rain tyres but the race was eventually called off and rescheduled for 8:30 on Sunday morning with the distance reduced from 17 to 13 laps – allowing race two to follow less than a couple of hours later.
Fastest in qualifying, Pulling had pole for race one and made an excellent getaway while Pin fended off an even-faster-starting Nerea Marti for second.
Pulling had already opened up a lead of over three seconds by the middle of the race when Pin was given a five-second penalty for a false start.
Despite Pin’s best efforts to make a gap to the cars behind, the penalty would demote her behind Marti, Maya Weug and wildcard debutant Nina Gademan to fifth place. Chloe Chambers finished a further four seconds back in a lonely sixth place.
Pin had the chance for redemption from pole in race two and got away well – in contrast to Pulling who slipped to third behind Weug.
While Pin was relatively comfortable out front, winning by 1.898 seconds, Weug had to deal with sustained pressure from Pulling. In the end, Pulling had to settle for third and has still seen her points lead grow to 71 points during the weekend.
Aurelia Nobels managed to keep hold of fourth place at the start but there was contact with Nerea Marti on the exit of the first corner that forced the Campos Racing driver through the gravel.
Nobels appeared to lack pace after that and began to defend against Gademan until lap nine, when Gademan went on the attack into the Turn 11/12 chicane. There was side-by-side contact that pushed Nobels into the gravel, allowing Hamda Al Qubaisi to also get past, and Gademan was soon handed a 10-second penalty as a result.
That would deprive Gademan of a second fourth-place finish, dropping her to 10th at the finish.
Results round-up
Race 1 (13 laps)
1 Abbi Pulling Rodin Motorsport 21m10.796s
2 Nerea Marti Campos Racing +7.060s
3 Maya Weug Prema +7.467s
4 Nina Gademan Prema +8.071s
5 Doriane Pin Prema +8.793s
6 Chloe Chambers Campos Racing +12.821s
7 Aurelia Nobels ART Grand Prix +17.011s
8 Hamda Al Qubaisi MP Motorsport +18.128s
9 Lia Block ART Grand Prix +19.174s
10 Carrie Schreiner Campos Racing +22.655s
Fastest lap: Pulling, 1m36.811s
Race 2 (17 laps)
1 Pin 27m39.628s
2 Weug +1.898s
3 Pulling +2.258s
4 H Al Qubaisi +15.281s
5 Nobels +23.196s
6 Schreiner +23.574s
7 Lola Lovinfosse Rodin Motorsport +24.004s
8 Marti +24.378s
9 Tina Hausmann Prema +24.539s
10 Gademan +24.919s
Fastest lap: Pin, 1m36.912s
Championship standings
1 Pulling 190 2 Pin 119 3 Chambers 89 4 Marti 85 5 Weug 84 6 H Al Qubaisi 71 7 Bustamante 57 8 Edgar 22 9 Nobels 22 10 Schreiner 18