Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Rodin Motorsport’s Abbi Pulling topped F1 Academy’s final qualifying session of the season to secure pole for all three races at Yas Marina.
Pulling mathematically clinched this year’s F1 Academy title for a second time in the process, having initially done enough to become champion during race one in Qatar. That was before the cancellation and rescheduling of the second contest to this weekend resulted in an additional two points for pole being created and left her needing one more point heading into qualifying.
Friday’s track action commenced with one free practice session, which was headed by Campos Racing’s Chloe Chambers who set a best lap of 1m56.175s to lead Pulling by 0.138 seconds, while Prema’s Doriane Pin pipped MP Motorsport’s Hamda Al Qubaisi to third by 0.016s on her final lap.
ART Grand Prix’s Bianca Bustamante posted an early benchmark of 1m56.384s in the 30-minute qualifying to lead her team-mate Lia Block by 0.8s. Rodin’s Jessica Edgar reduced Bustamante’s advantage to 0.487s before Pulling demoted her from second by 0.002s.
Chambers took over in second with a lap 0.112s shy of the pace, which was then lowered by Pulling who moved to the top with a 1m56.439s. MP’s Emily de Heus climbed to second before Chambers reclaimed first place with a 1m56.413s.
Pulling responded with a 1m56.340s to gain the ascendancy once more before heading to the pitlane for a second set of tyres at the session’s halfway stage. She remained ahead until the closing stages where Al Qubaisi leap to the top with a 1m56.229s, while Pulling was shuffled back to third by Chambers.
Al Qubaisi was denied pole on home soil, however, as Pulling went quicker still on her final two efforts to end with a best lap of 1m56.081s to secure race one pole, with her second and third-best times giving her pole for the other two contests.
Chambers edged Al Qubaisi to second before the session’s conclusion with a lap 0.12s shy of Pulling. Bustamante also improved late on to secure fourth.
Pin, meanwhile, opted to save an extra set of tyres for the races and spent the opening 15 minutes in the pits. She struggled with track limits once she headed to track, suffering multiple lap time deletions that initially left her down in 14th until making three flying laps count to finish fifth quickest.
De Heus took sixth ahead of Prema’s Maya Weug, who also only ran one set of tyres, with Campos duo Nerea Marti and Carrie Schreiner in eighth and ninth and Block completing the top-10.
Chambers is due to start alongside Pulling on the front row in all three encounters, with Al Qubaisi provisionally third for race two and fourth behind Pin for race three.
Qualifying results
Race one grid
1 Abbi Pulling Rodin Motorsport 1m56.081s
2 Chloe Chambers Campos Racing +0.120s
3 Hamda Al Qubaisi MP Motorsport +0.148s
4 Bianca Bustamante ART Grand Prix +0.308s
5 Doriane Pin Prema +0.403s
6 Emely De Heus MP Motorsport +0.598s
7 Maya Weug Prema 0.639s
8 Nerea Marti Campos Racing +0.673s
9 Carrie Schreiner Campos Racing +0.773s
10 Lia Block ART Grand Prix +0.775s
Race two grid
1 Pulling 1m56.120s
2 Chambers +0.135s
3 Al Qubaisi +0.283s
4 Bustamante +0.308s
5 Pin +0.407s
6 Weug +0.647s
7 Marti +0.665s
8 Block +0.747s
9 De Heus +0.748s
10 Schreiner +0.758s
Race three grid
1 Pulling 1m56.267s
2 Chambers +0.146s
3 Pin +0.265s
4 Al Qubaisi +0.280s
5 Bustamante +0.427s
6 Weug +0.561s
7 Marti +0.561s
8 Block +0.649s
9 Tina Hausmann Prema +0.650s
10 De Heus +0.698s