Ferrari‘s Maya Weug took F1 Academy Race 2 victory in Saudi Arabia at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit after a time penalty demoted Red Bull Ford’s Chloe Chambers.
Chambers led across the line, but forcing Weug off the road earlier on demoted her to second in front of Mercedes’ Doriane Pin.
Chambers lined up on pole, alongside Pin on the front row, who had charged through to fourth in the reverse grid Race 1 on Saturday.
Weug lined up in third after taking a strong second in Race 1, joined on the second row by Red Bull’s Alisha Palmowski, who’d rounded out the Race 1 podium.
After taking a maiden victory in F1 Academy on Saturday in Saudi Arabia, McLaren’s Ella Lloyd started Race 2 from seventh on the grid owing to her qualifying result.
13 laps began with Chambers leading from pole as Weug pounced on Pin to take second through Turns 1 and 2.
Lloyd, meanwhile, had a slow start, stalling at lights out before getting underway at the back of the field.
A strong opening lap from the front two saw them gap Pin by 1.2s as Sauber’s Emma Felbermayr was caught in a spin at the start of Lap 2 in an intense midfield scrap.
Weug tried in vain to challenge Chambers at Turn 22, but had to escape to the run-off, and Chambers was later forced to defend down the start/finish straight.
But it was to no avail, Weug swept into the lead at the start of Lap 3, but side by side action between the pair saw them run wide halfway through the lap.
That dropped Weug into third, and Pin was promoted to second, but had Chambers forced the Ferrari driver off?
Weug, the bit between her teeth, muscled past Pin at the outside of Turn 1 for the second time in four laps to reclaim second, and set about charging after Chambers once again.
After five laps were done and dusted, Chambers punched in the fastest lap of the race, and her lead over Weug was just over a second.
Pin was a further second back, with Palmowski half a second behind the Frenchwoman.
Weug responded to Chambers’ fastest tour of the Jeddah circuit a lap later, and the American’s gap was slashed to eight-tenths of a second.
Making matters worse, race control handed Chambers a five-second penalty for forcing Weug wide in their earlier scuffles, and her Race Engineer put the emphasis on growing the leading gap to mitigate the punishment.
But with five laps to go, Weug wasn’t going anywhere, with Chambers set to lose her lead amid the penalty.
Second, too, looked off the cards as Pin was 2.7s back, but a podium was still on the cards for the Red Bull Ford driver.
That’s because Palmowski and Tommy Hilfiger’s Alba Larsen, in fourth and fifth, were 4.5s back and due for a scrap.
By the penultimate lap, Chambers had crept that gap to fourth beyond five seconds, and looked set to hold onto a podium finish.
Chambers’ pace continued to ramp up on the final lap, and she sought to stretch her margin to take second off of Pin, with the Mercedes driver falling five seconds back in the final phases of the race.
But it was Weug who took victory, her first of the 2025 season, with Chambers setting the fastest lap on the final tour of the circuit to hold onto second.
Pin finished third, ahead of the impressive rookie duo of Palmowski and Larsen.
Aston Martin’s Tia Hausmann finished sixth ahead of Alpine’s Nina Gademan.
Lloyd recovered to eighth after her starting mishap, as 16-year-old Joanne Ciconte and Chloe Chong rounded out the top-10.
READ MORE – McLaren’s Ella Lloyd clinches maiden F1 Academy victory in Saudi Arabia
