Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Rodin Motorsport’s Abbi Pulling took a light-to-flag victory in F1 Academy’s first race in Singapore.
The race got shortened from 12 to 11 laps after ART Grand Prix’s Bianca Bustamante drove past her grid box at the end of the formation lap, and that also led to her being handed a 10-second stop-go penalty.
Pulling and Prema’s Maya Weug started strongly from the front row, with Prema’s Doriane Pin and ART GP’s Lia Block holding third and fourth after Block tried to brake late on the inside at turn one.
MP Motorsport’s Hamda Al Qubaisi cut turn two and dropped from fifth to seventh, behind Campos Racing’s Chloe Chambers and Prema’s debuting Ella Lloyd.
Pulling set fastest laps on each of the first four tours, but was only 1.1 seconds ahead of Weug as she began lap five. There were similar gaps between most of the drivers, with Lloyd initially pressuring Chambers but then having to give more attention to Al Qubaisi and Campos’s Nerea Marti behind.
MP’s Emely de Heus spun off at turn one on lap six when trying to pass ART GP’s Aurelia Nobels, but since she was at the back and able to get going again the yellow flags that then waved at the corner did not interrupt the racing action.
Pulling set another fastest lap on that tour, pulling 1.3s clear, and made her biggest gains on Weug the next two laps as her lead grew by a further 0.3s each time. Weug revealed afterwards that she had pushed her tyres too hard early on, and she finished NN behind.
The battle for sixth ran all race, with Al Qubaisi attempting a move on lap nine but not having enough room to risk a late-braking manouevre around the outside of Lloyd.
It was ultimately determined by race control as they handed Lloyd a five-second penalty for jumping the start, with the same offence by Pin copping her an identical penalty. She had enough of a gap to stay in third, helped by snatching the fastest lap from Pulling as she took the chequered flag.
Race result (11 laps)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Abbi Pulling | Rodin Motorsport | 22m54.485s |
| 2 | Maya Weug | Prema | +2.056s |
| 3 | Doriane Pin | Prema | +8.564s |
| 4 | Lia Block | ART Grand Prix | +8.772s |
| 5 | Chloe Chambers | Campos Racing | +9.563s |
| 6 | Hamda Al Qubaisi | MP Motorsport | +15.680s |
| 7 | Nerea Marti | Campos Racing | +16.343s |
| 8 | Carrie Schreiner | Campos Racing | +17.960s |
| 9 | Ella Lloyd | Prema | +19.901s |
| 10 | Tina Hausmann | Prema | +20.564s |
| 11 | Lola Lovinfosse | Rodin Motorsport | +22.152s |
| 12 | Amna Al Qubaisi | MP Motorsport | +22.501s |
| 13 | Jessica Edgar | Rodin Motorsport | +27.377s |
| 14 | Aurelia Nobels | ART Grand Prix | +28.000s |
| 15 | Emely de Heus | MP Motorsport | +37.345s |
| 16 | Bianca Bustamante | ART Grand Prix | +57.095s |
| Fastest lap: Pin, 2m04.454s
Championship standings |
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