Nina Gademan stormed to a commanding victory in Race 1 of the F1 Academy season-opener at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.
After an intense qualifying session yesterday, the top eight qualifiers were reversed to form today’s grid. The experienced Alpine-backed Gademan started from pole position, with Sephora-backed rookie Natalia Granada alongside her.
Meanwhile, Sunday’s pole-sitter Alisha Palmowski starts down in eighth place, with Alba Larsen ahead of her in seventh.
For the second year running, Wei Shi is the wild card. The hometown hero starting the race from 18th and last place on the grid, looking to put on a strong showing for the partisan crowd at the Shanghai International Circuit.
Lights out for Race 1 in Shanghai
As the lights went out, Gademan had a great start off the line, immediately consolidating her lead into Turn 1. Meanwhile Lisa Billard struggled to get off the line at the start, thus falling behind Palmowski in eighth. This poor start from the rookie enabled Racing Bulls driver Rafaela Ferreira to move into third.
Further back in the field, drivers continued to fight for positions just in the opening lap. McLaren’s Ella Lloyd led the rest of the field through the final turn, holding off at least three of her rivals to stay within touching distance of the points.
Unfortunately for the Aston Martin-backed Mathilda Paatz, she fell to last place, 14 seconds off the pace of the race leader. The PREMA Driver made early contact with Shi, damaging her front wing. Paatz was then called to pit and change her front wing.
Out front, Gademan has cleared her closest rival by a second, just four laps into the race, no doubt using her experience from last season to control the race at the front of the field.
Toward the end of Lap 4, Peyton Westcott makes a move on Ferreira into Turn 14. However, her rival quite easily regained the final podium place, keeping the battle going for another lap.
Safety Car triggers further drama
On Lap 7, Larsen sustained front wing damage following contact with Emma Felbermayr. The incident left debris on the circuit, forcing the Ferrari driver to nurse her car around the track whilst dropping down the order to ninth.
Race control quickly deployed the Safety Car to allow marshals to safely retrieve Larsen’s detached front wing. Its deployment was extremely ill-timed for Gademan, who seemingly had the race under control at the front.
At the end of Lap 8, the Safety Car peeled into the pit lane, allowing Gademan to take control of the pack, consolidating the lead from a good restart.
However, it wasn’t smooth sailing for all. Larsen took an unfortunate trip into the gravel, dropping her down to 14th. With the lack of downforce, the Ferrari driver was called into the pit lane to replace the front wing.
The drivers continued to swap positions throughout the field on the final four laps. An intense battle unfolded for third and fourth, with Ferreira, who sat in third, coming under immediate pressure from Westcott. However, the veteran kept the rookie behind her, bringing Felbermayr into the fight.
The following lap, Audi’s Felbermayr was able to put her car ahead of Westcott, who ran wide and dropped down to sixth from fourth.
Larsen, who pit for a front wing change, still sat last, almost a minute behind the front runners. The Danish driver will surely have been left hoping to improve her form ahead of Sunday’s bigger race.
Final laps in Shanghai
On the penultimate lap, the battle between Felbermayr and Ferreira intensified, as both were desperate for the final spot on the podium. Felbermayr continued to put pressure on her rival all the way until Turn 1 on the final lap. But Ferreira managed to keep her at bay.
Felbermayr finally managed to get past into Turn 2 on the final lap, with Ferreira maintaining pressure behind. Despite her best efforts, the Brazilian finished the race narrowly behind the podium places.
But it was Nina Gademan who held strong, claiming her second victory in F1 Academy. The Dutch driver was closely followed by Granada, who picked up her maiden podium in her first race in the series.
Further behind, Palmowski held onto a hard-fought fifth place with Westcott, Lloyd and Billard rounding out the points for Race 1 of 2026. Unfortunately for the hometown hero, Wei, she finished down in 17th, after early contact with Paatz.
The drivers will return on Sunday for the ever-important Race 2, with the spoils, as ever, up for grabs amongst many of the front-running drivers.
READ MORE – F1 Academy 2026 Chinese Grand Prix – Race 1 Results
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