F1 Academy Shanghai Race Recap

Image credit to F1 Academy Website

Free Practice

Doriane Pin was flying throughout the opening Practice session of the season. As Pin topped the times sheets with a time of 2:04.198, her PREMA Racing teammate Tina Hausmann joined her for the second spot less than a tenth behind. During the session we saw multiple Yellow Flags and with less than 20 minutes left on the board we got a red flag. Ella Lloyd was the first to bring out the yellow flag as she spun off at Turn 9 but was then able to rejoin. With less than 20 minutes to go the Red Flag was brought out as there was an incident with the Raging Bulls’ Rafaela Ferreira who made contact with the Williams Driver, Lia Block as she made her way past down the back straight, this resulted in the Williams Car making heavy contact with the barrier. With 8 minutes left on the clock the drivers were let back out on track.  Not long after a brief Yellow Flag was brought out as Shanghai Wild Card driver, Shi Wei had a spin at the entry of Turn 1. The finishing result saw Maya Weug fourth, with Nina Gademan for Alpine finishing off the top 5.

Qualifying

Maya Weug left last season with her maiden win and started this season with her maiden pole position. Throughout the session Maya was in a league of her own and eventually set the unbeaten time of 2:03.379. Doriane had to settle for second by over four tenths slower than Weug’s time. Alba Larsen driving for MP Motorsports, found herself third in her first qualifying in F1 Academy. Unfortunately due to the heavy damage caused to Lia Block’s Williams she had to sit watching from the pits. The rest of the drivers instantly took to the track to try and set the fastest times. Ella Lollyd was first to get her time on the board and set the pace at 2:06.143. Not long after, Alisha Palmowski took provisional pole at a time of 2:05.092. This time was then beaten by Maya who was first to break into the 2:04s. MP Mortorsports was looking strong, as Larsen joined her teammate Maya in fourth. As the track quietened down this gave Maya another amazing lap in order to extend her lead. Weug set a time of 2:03.379 which was four tenths quicker than her previous time. The drivers poured back onto the track and the time sheet flooded with times. Many drivers improved on the previous laps. Larsen moved to P3 with multiple others such as Palmowski, Felbermayr and Hausmann following behind to round up the top 6 momentarily. The checkered flag was waved as Doriane Pin was on her final lap. Pin was up on Maya’s time in sector one but could not eek out any more performance from the Mercedes car meaning she stayed behind Weug by 0.497s to claim second. Rookie driver Alba Larsen held onto P3 with Chambers coming in fourth with Palmowski not too far behind. Ciconte rounded off the top 6 meaning all three MP Motorsports cars would be in the top 3. Emma Felbermayr took seventh with Nina Gademan in eighth. Tina Hausmann just behind her PREMa teammate in ninth then had Chloe Chong just behind to complete the top 10.

Race One

With the Grid set with the top 8 drivers in reverse, this led Nina Gademen to start on reverse-pole with Emma to start on the front row with her. As the lights went out Nina managed to make a fantastic start and pulled a comfortable lead into Turn 1. Chambers also got a good launch and took Joanne at the start and put pressure on those ahead. Maya managed to climb up the order on the opening lap and made a move on her teammate Alba which saw her get into P5, Pin also managed to get past the Tommy Hilfiger driver following Weug closely.  Shanghai Wild Card, Shi Wei unfortunately spun at Turn 7 and got beached on the kerb ending her session and bringing out the safety car as the field entered Lap 2. Three laps later the safety car came back into the pits with Nina going full throttle for the final corner. On the restart Chambers managed to pass Felbermayr as she out-breaked the Kick Sauber driver into Turn 1. Weug was following Felbermayr closely before forcing the Austrian to go defensive into Turn 7 where Weug was easily swept past, with Pin following in the Ferraris path. The Safety Car was seen for a second time as Lia Block locked up causing her to make contact with her teammate rear, and sent Aurelia Nobels’ spinning. The Green Flag was waved and racing resumed for Lap 8. Nina made another good restart and kept in the lead, further down the pack Chloe chong went for an unexpected move on Nicole Havrda. With cold tires and no grip the Charlotte Tilbury car made contact with the American Express car leading to another Safety Car. This incident also resulted with Chloe receiving a 10-second penalty. A starting procedure infringement led Ciconte, who was sitting in P9, to a 10-second penalty meaning her battle to get back into the points seemed to be more difficult. Under the safety car the Australian served the penalty and was subsequently handed a second 10-second stop/go penalty for failing to serve the first one correctly.  Lap 11, Nina Gademan again bunched the pack back up before flooring it out around the final corner, keeping her first position yet again. By the end of the lap Gademan managed to pull eight tenths on the field.  However, the hopes of bringing home a maiden win was quickly out of the picture as on the penultimate lap the Alpine driver suffered with a problem leading to her slowing down and out of the race. Palmowski inherited the lead and got ready to defend from Chloe Chambers. Palmowski took the checkered Flag first with Chambers behind. Maya was next to cross in third, Doriane was lucky to bring it home in fourth as she marginally avoided contact between Alba Larsen and Emma Felbermayr. A fantastic drive from Rafaela Ferreira after starting in P16 she saw herself into the points and in fifth,  then was followed by Ella Lloyd in sixth, who had started all the way from the pit lane. The Kick Sauber driver found herself outside of the points as on the last lap was tagged by Tina Hausmann. Multiple penalties were given out which saw Larsen who had crossed the line fourth drop to P7 after a 10-second penalty was given for causing a collision with Felbermayr. A 10-second penalty for a starting procedure infringement was given to Haas driver Courtney Crone who had finished eighth, this then was converted to a 30-second time penalty. Aiva Anagnostiadis was promoted after all the penalties and took the final point.

Race Two

The grid was set for race 2 to get underway, unfortunately this did not happen and Race 2 was delayed. An oil spill from the previous session meant racing was delayed and we got 2 additional formation laps and a rolling start. This meant we only got 11 laps left of the race. Although Maya Weug was the one to get racing underway, Pin had other ideas and went round the outside of the Ferrari drive into Turn 1 and forced Maya onto the kerb for Turn 2. Doriane got the move done and took the lead of the pack and started building up the gap to three tenths. However, Pin could not build on the gap as a Safety Car came out at the end of the first lap. Due to Tina Hausmann trying to get past Gademan for P6 but out-breaked herself causing her to tag the back of the Alpine and send Nina spinning, Tina was then given a 10-second penalty. The incident had a knock on effect, as Ciconte barely avoided the incident she was then clipped by Chloe Chong spinning her across Turn 8. This led Aurelia Nobles and Nicole Havrda with nowhere to go and eventually retired from the race. On Lap 5 the track was brought back to Green Flag conditions. Pin aced the restart but Weug was staying close behind in the tow. A three-way battle broke out for P10 which resulted in Rafaela ferreira sliding into P9 past Courtney Crone who then fell further down the order as both Lia Block and Gademan got past the Haas driver the following lap. Further up the field a fight for third was on as alba was defending from chambers. Chloe made a move into the hairpin but  bailed out to avoid contact. This battle continued the next lap at the same hairpin and yet again Chambers was unable to get the move done. The duel continued up until Lap 10, the Red Bull Ford driver refused to stay in fourth and eventually took the inside line at Turn 1 and got the overtake done and moved onto the podium. Doriane Pin was first to take the Checkered Flag with a two second lead to Maya weug in second then followed by Chloe Chambers. For the rookies Alba got a great finish for her debut in P4. Then came Felbermayr in P5 with Palmowski and Lloyd in P6 and 7. The Charlotte Tilbury car finished in P8 but was given a 10-second penalty for causing a collision with Ciconte which resulted with her dropping into P11 and out of the points. This promoted Ferreira, Block and Gademan taking the final points.

[ Article Written By: Isabelle Tong ]