F1 Academy | FP | Saudi Arabian GP | Chloe Chambers secures pole position for Campos Racing - Motorsport

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After today’s practice session, the 19 female drivers had 30 minutes in the Qualifying session to set their fastest lap times to try and claim pole position in this Saudi Arabian GP. The qualifying results decide the starting order for Sunday’s Race whereas tomorrow’s Race starts with a reverse grid for the top 8 qualifiers.

While French driver Doriane Pin is leading the Championship driver standings at the moment, her Dutch rival Maya Weug was off to a great start after topping the timesheets during free practice this afternoon. This qualifying session however saw her reach P3. Completing the grid as the 19th driver, Farah AlYousef is a new addition for this F1 Academy Round 2, running in front of her home crowd in a Hitech TGR machine as the second Wild Card of the season. With a poor qualifying, the Saudi driver starts P17 in both races this weekend.

Though cooler than the practice session, evening conditions remain warm, with a track temperature of 35.7 degrees Celsius and an air temperature of 31.3 degrees Celsius.

Green light for F1 Academy Qualifying at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit

With 30 minutes on the clock, the 19 drivers set off to race under the lights on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit with a new set of sleek tyres, led by Rodin’s Ella Lloyd.

Lloyd, supported by McLaren, set the benchmark for the Saudi Arabian GP qualifying session with a 2.06.550 time after locking up her outside right tyre in the tricky corner 22 and again in the final corner. She dropped to second as Maya Weug set a clean lap with a 2.05.827.

ART Grand Prix’s Lia Block fell victim to track limits, seeing her time deleted and falling from P3 to P12 with no time on the board.

Block brings out red flag out 24 minutes into Qualifying

After feeling more comfortable with a P5 in free practice, Block unfortunately went off into the bareer at the final corner. She had complained about the lack of grip a mere seconds before. The American driver supported by Williams Racing is thus starting from the back of the grid for both upcoming races.

Drivers were then under pressure to get back out onto the track with a new set of tyres to set a lap time before the session carried on. Aurelia Nobels capitalized on the red flag brought out by her teammate and changed her ART Grand Prix car set-up.

Back out again for the restart

The drivers left the pitlane again behind Lloyd after the session restarted with one less driver on the track. As the session restarted, Palmowski laboriously went for a push lap with barely warm tyres, setting a slow 2.06.234.

On her end, Lloyd challenged Weug in the second part of the session with a strong 2.05.686. However, Weug quickly beat her rival again, topping the times with 2.05.635.

All drivers struggled for grip throughout the session. However, with 16 minutes remaining on the clock, Chambers was faster than anyone in sector one, leading the sheets with a 2.05.158 while Weug set a new record in sector 2. In the meantime, Pin pit to change tyres. Maintaining impressive form, Chambers improved on her own time with a 2.05.097.

Aurelia Nobels crossed the finish line only P9 with 13 minutes left on the clock. A few minutes later, Nobels reached P7, potentially allowing her to start the first Race in second place.

Chambers, the undisputable session leader, was in front of Palowski and Larsen with 10 minutes left to qualify. Lloyd fractionally improved to reach P3 while Chambers set a new record with 2.04.955s.

After cooling down her tyres, Palmowski went for another push lap and just missed out on the top of the times, remaining +0.063s behind Chambers.

Conclusion of the Qualifying session

Weug, on personal best sectors, only reached P3 a few minutes before the end of the session while Palmowski went for yet another push lap that got her to provisional pole with 2.04.864s.

French driver Doriane Pin who had been struggling all session, jumped to the top of the times, with less than a tenth of second between the top three. Chambers took provisional pole from Pin with 3 minutes left in the session.

Palmowski went over the kerb with a loose rear in the final two minutes after, though the Red Bull Racing supported driver did not abort her lap.

Lloyd and Gademan battled for 8th place in the last seconds. Lloyd improved to 7th while Gademan missed out on P8 to Felbermayr.

As the chequered flag fell, Chambers set the fastest time of the session and will be starting on pole Sunday. She was followed by PREMA Racing’s Pin, MP Motorsport’s Weug, Campos Racing’s Palmowski and MP Motorsport’s Larsen completing the top five.