Mercedes Junior Driver Doriane Pin took the first race win of the 2024 F1 Academy season, with Alpine Academy ace Abbi Pulling finishing a close second.
With the race commencing shortly after 3 PM local time conditions were different compared to Thursday night’s qualifying session and more representative of the daytime practice session.
Pin was the one to watch heading into the race, having dominated proceedings up to lights out – fastest in practice and a double pole winner.
The initial start was aborted and anticipation for the 16 drivers cooled as the field was set off on an extra formation lap.
Pin grabbed the holeshot once racing got underway, followed by Pulling and Weug as all 16 cars made it through the first chicane without incident.
27 corners, a high-speed layout and low-powered junior formula cars meant the pack remained tight on the opening lap as drivers jockeyed to get tucked into slipstream.
At the end of lap one, it was Pin from Pulling, Weug, Tommy Hilfiger-backed Nerea Martí and Charlotte Tilbury’s Lola Lovinfosse.
The top five managed to break away as lap two unfolded with McLaren’s Bianca Bustamante reporting a puncture and instructed to pit over team radio with heavy pressure from seventh back – led by Haas’ Chloe Chambers.
But the McLaren driver stayed out on lap three as the likes of Chambers looked to move through with success, demoting Bustamante to seventh with the apparent puncture not materialising.
Toward the back of the field, wildcard Reema Juffali spun on lap three, with RB-backed Amna Al Qubaisi involved.
Juffali reported on team radio that Al Qubaisi tagged the rear of her car and the RB machine lost its front wing, triggering a Safety Car.
The Saftey Car came to an end as the field rolled around to complete the fourth lap of 12, with Pin backing up the field ahead of the final corner and out of it, waiting to pull the trigger until the start/finish straight.
Pin had a comfortable restart as Pulling successfully fended off Ferrari Academy Driver Weug.
A lap later Pulling was just under a second behind leader Pin and Martí a few seconds back from third-placed Weug.
Meanwhile, Tina Hausmann challenged Lia Block for eighth at the final corner at the end of Lap 6, Jess Edgar looked to pass both but came away with a puncture after tagging Hausmann’s front wing and dropped down the order.
With five laps to go it was Pin, a second ahead of Pulling who had now pulled a two-second gap ahead of Weug – Martí ran in fourth fractionally ahead of Lovinfosse with Champers, Bustamante, Block and Hausmann rounding out the order to ninth.
A race-long battle ensued behind for 10th, with Puma-backed Auerlia Nobels defending valiantly against Red Bull racing’s Hamda Al Qubaisi, who ran on at the first corner at the start of lap nine, taking 10th in the process which she had to yield for gaining off-track.
The tussle for the final championship point ultimately led to a train of five cars nose-to-tail.
That fight transpired to be for ninth and 10th when Block span into the wall on the penultimate lap after running hard on a kerb.
Martí was spun out of the race at the start of the final tour, clipped by Lovinfosse on the entry to Turn 1.
Pin meanwhile held on to take the chequered flag and the first win of the 2024 F1 Academy season.
Pulling kept within a second of her rival to take the runner-up spot along with the fastest lap with Weug finishing six seconds back to complete the podium.
Chambers took fourth with Lovinfosse crossing the line in fifth, but her hand in Martí’s retirement could affect her result.
Bustamante finished in sixth, with Hausmann, Nobels, H. Al Qubaisi and Sauber’s Carrie Schreiner completing the top 10.
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