Weug inherits F1 Academy win after Chambers penalty

Photo: F1 Academy

Ferrari junior Maya Weug recovered from an early incident with Chloe Chambers to take her first F1 Academy victory of the season in Jeddah.

Campos Racing’s Chambers finished first on the road but was denied her second triumph by a five-second penalty for her clash with MP Motorsport’s Weug, who claimed the win and the championship lead.

Chambers made a good start from pole when the lights went out to gain a clear lead into turn one, while Weug swept past Prema’s pre-race points leader Doriane Pin for second.

Alisha Palmowski maintained fourth despite a slightly slow getway from the second row, while Saturday’s race one winner Ella Lloyd was one of five drivers to stall and slipped out of the top 10.

Having caught Chambers on lap two, Weug made a lead challenge at turn 22 but was forced off the road. The pair went wheel-to-wheel again a few corners later before Weug finally prevailed to move ahead at the start of the next tour.

Weug made an error further around the lap, getting airborne on a kerb and bouncing wide, which allowed Chambers to draw back alongside. Subsequent contact caused them both to go off track, with Chambers emerging in the lead ahead of Pin, while Weug rejoined just ahead of Palmowski in third.

It didn’t take long for Weug to catch back up to Pin, however, and she reclaimed second at the start of lap four. Weug initially started to eat into Chambers’ 1.4s advantage, but the battle fizzled out once Chambers was handed a penalty for forcing Weug off the road earlier on.

Although she couldn’t pull clear enough of Weug in the closing stages, Chambers did make sure of second place by setting the fastest lap on the final tour to edge third-placed Pin after her penalty was applied by 0.065s.

Chambers’ Campos stablemate Palmowski came home a further 1s behind in fourth, with MP’s Alba Hurup Larsen following close behind throughout and taking fifth.

Prema’s Tina Hausmann matched her result from Saturday with sixth ahead of her team-mate Nina Gademan. Rodin Motorsport’s Lloyd recovered to eighth ahead of MP’s Joanne Ciconte, who was another to stall at the start.

Lloyd’s team-mate Chloe Chong was the final points-scorer in 10th ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Aurelia Nobels, who lost ground early on when taking avoiding action of a clash a turn two between Rodin’s Emma Felbermayr and Campos’s Rafaela Ferreira.

Race results (13 laps)