It’s time for the penultimate race of F1 Academy which determined who would take the much awaited championship win. The two contenders for the championship – Abbi Pulling and Doriane Pin – who scored P3 and Pole in qualifying respectively.
As the race took place at around 11 P.M. local time – the drivers did find it a bit hard navigating through the dark.
Starting Grid
The F1 Academy drivers started their formation lap in the order they qualified on Friday: Doriane Pin, Maya Weug, Abbi Pulling, Lia Block, Hamda Al Qubaisi, Alisha Palmowski, Nerea Marti, Bianca Bustamante, Aurelia Nobels, Jessica Edgar, Carrie Schreiner, Chloe Chambers, Emely De Heus, Amna Al Qubaisi, Tina Hausmann and Lola LovinFosse.
5 Second Time Penalties
Pin had a great start in lap one, but it is Pulling who has gained great traction and is able to overtake Weug at turn one. Chambers and Hausmann on the other hand had false starts receiving five second penalties each. In the face of this penalty, Chambers began climbing up the table as she overtakes both Schreiner and Edgar in the second lap, climbing from P12 to P10 in the first few laps. Amna Qubaisi fell into a gravel trap.
We as spectators were able to see Pulling gain a position for the first time in the season, as she had always been leading a race. The rear end of Hamda Qubaisi’s car is looking a bit loose and causing some concern.
Traps Galore
Marti, Lovinfosse, Amna Qubaisi and Palmoski all fell into speed traps on the straight. Chloe on the other hand takes over Nobles and takes P9. De Heus took over Schreiner as she attempted to take Nobles position. Palmoski faced some serious lockup.
Hausman tried to take over LovinFosse, has a bit of a lockup before taking the position.
Bustamante was seen facing multiple issues as she fell into gravel traps, locked up, oversteered and even spun around between Turn 4 and 5 resulting in her falling to P16. She was eager to score points in the race and even reached within the P8.
Final Lap
Chambers took over Marti and Edgar, using the double slipstream to her advantage. Doriane Pin leads the race with a 6 second gap from Pulling showing her amazing pedigree not only in Qatar but throughout all the races.
“You’ve got a four second gap behind, bring it home” the team at Rodin Motorsports told Pulling over the radio during the last few laps of the race.
Like expected, Pin clinched P1 taking another win for herself as Pulling and Weug got P2 and P3 respectively. However Pin’s result wasn’t enough to fend of Pulling for the championship
Championship Winner!
Abbi Pulling, the British driver, wins the championship with 245 points and makes history as the 2024 Champion of the F1 Academy 2024 Championship.
“It’s nice to hear them words. Yeah It’s been a tougher season mostly. Going into the year I had no choice but to win, you know. I’ve struggled financially in the past and to get the price for next year. I know it is so early to talk about next year but that makes me so happy, so incredibly proud. I can’t thank everyone who has got me in this position.” The champion said in the post race interview
“I had the adrenaline pumping. Alright it’s on. I was like Maya, you are not coming past me. I really enjoyed that actually. You know I have lost the place or two at the start sometimes. To do it really where it counts, I knew it was important. So really proud of myself and I showed what I was made of in that race.” said the Champion.
“Such a weight off my shoulders. It;s been me and my dad and recently I have managed to get the likes of Alpine and Rodin Cars, Rodin.” Pulling said as she felt the heat and joy of the win enter her body.
“They’ve all been in my corner and have helped me get this far. And I am gonna go into next year as hungry as I have this year and really really put the work in and make the most of the opportunity and I can for once say I will make sure I leave no stone unturned.”
