In the extreme humidity of the Marina Bay, Round 5 of F1 Academy continues with the first big chance to score points ahead of us — Race 1 with 12 laps of racing. It will be possibly the toughest test for the young drivers yet — street circuit new for most of them, humidity, heat, unpredictable track…
The drivers head off to the formation in the following order in which they qualified yesterday: Abbi Pulling, Maya Weug, Dorian Pin, Lia Block, Hamda Al Qubaisi, Chloe Chambers, Nerea Martí, Ella Loyd, Bianca Bustamante, Carrie Schreiner, Tina Hausmann, Lola Lovinfosse, Jessie Edgar, Emely De Heus, Aurelia Nobles and Amna Al Qubaisi.
However, the start is aborted, and the drivers go for an extra formation lap. This is because Bianca Bustamante signalled the officials with a wave of her hand, letting them know she’s not confident with getting the start right and there’s possibility of stalling and causing a crash. Unfortunately, while doing that, Bustamante went further than her grid box, so instead of starting in P9, she should start from the pit lane now — though the McLaren driver doesn’t go for the pit lane, starts in her original place on the grid and is noted by stewards for it.
As the race gets underway, now only 11 laps long, Abbi Pulling gets a brilliant start. There’s a car off the road looks like Nerea Martí got wide. Chloe Chambers is under pressure from the Wild Card entry Ella Lloyd behind.
Hamda Al Qubaisi drops down two positions to P7, behind Lloyd who, with her amazing start, got up two positions to P6.
Chambers has a big lock-up in Turn 13 and Bustamante gets a stop and go penalty that she serves on Lap 2, dropping to last place.
Pulling in front takes provisional fastest lap of the race in Lap 3. Hamda Al Qubaisi in the special Red Bull livery wants to make up some places she lost at the start, chasing Lloyd with the encouragement from her team over the radio.
The top four stays the same — Alpine’s Abbi Pulling, Ferrari’s Maya Weug, Mercedes’ Doriane Pin and Williams’ Lia Block, with Haas’ Chloe Chambers following in fifth.
Nerea Martí is over a half a second behind Hamda Al Qubaisi, chasing her for P7. In front, Maya Weug is putting purple sectors in, slowly reducing the gap to Pulling in first.
The yellow flag in sector two is caused by Red Bull’s Emely De Haus who spins to avoid a crash with Aurelia Nobles at the back — the Puma-supported Nobles in P14 and De Heus in P15.
Martí pushes as they go through the middle sector, her engineer telling her to be smart about the overtake.
Doriane Pin is noted for a false start, and this penalty if given could possibly really hurt her ambitions of winning the championship.
Lap 7 out of 11 and Pulling seems to have it covered, extending her lead on Weug to 1.7 seconds.
Nobles fights Jessie Edgar for P13, the American Express sponsored damaging her tyres a bit with hard breaking.
Pin gets the 5-second penalty for false start, which means that if Lia Block can keep up her gap to the Frenchwoman in these five seconds, she’ll get promoted to the podium — 4.3 seconds behind on Lap 9, and Chambers in P5 would also fit in the five seconds. Pin would have to do qualifying laps until the end of the race to ensure she stays on the podium.
De Heus also gets a penalty for not following the instructions after her spin in sector two earlier, crossing a dangerous line and not taking the right way back to track. This incident will be investigated after the race.
Lap 11 gets underway, Block 4.8 seconds behind Pin and Chambers out of the five seconds margin. Pin gives it everything and gets the gap to 5.2 in the last few corners, getting the fastest lap as well.
But all eyes are on Abbi Pulling as she takes yet another win, taking the winning 25 points plus two additional points for double pole position yesterday in Qualifying. She makes sure she’s determined to win the Drivers’ Championship tomorrow in Race 2. The question remaining is if she can turn her second pole position in another win and crush Pin’s dreams of catching her in the championship battle.
The Wild Card entry in F1 Academy Discover Your Drive livery, Ella Lloyd, drops from P6 to P9 at the end, but still showed her great potential today.
The results of Race 1 in Singapore are: 1. Abbi Pulling, 2. Maya Weug, 3. Doriane Pin, 4. Lia Block, 5. Chloe Chambers, 6. Hamda Al Qubaisi, 7. Nerea Martí, 8. Carrie Schreiner, 9. Ell Lloyd, 10. Tina Hausmann, 11. Lola Lovinfosse, 12. Amna Al Qubaisi, 13. Jessie Edgar, 14. Aurelia Nobles, 15. Emily De Haus and 16. Bianca Bustamante.
