F1 Academy took to the track at the Jeddah Street Circuit to complete their first race weekend of the 2024 season. This is the first of 7 rounds where we will see the cars hit the track. The following circuits F1 Academy will be racing at include Miami, Barcelona, Zandvoort, Singapore, Lusail and lastly, Yas Marina. There is a ton of excitement surrounding the first F1 Academy weekend and Formula One have shown their full support for the series.
Keep reading to find out how the weekend played out!
Doriane Pin, racing with Prema Racing, representing Mercedes, set the pace for the first Free Practice session of the F1 Academy season. Pin was able to set a time of 2:04.889, solidifying her position at the top of the timesheets. Right on her tail was Abbi Pulling of Rodin Motorsport, representing Alpine, and finishing the session in third came the ART GP driver, Lia Block (representing Williams). It was a competitive Free Practice with the timesheets seeing many different drivers holding the top spot. Nerea Martí, driving in the Tommy Hilfiger car for Campos Racing, finished just behind block in fourth position, holding of the Prema driver, Maya Weug (representing Ferrari), who finished the session in 5th.
The first qualifying session of the season was very exciting and had fans on the edge of their seat. Prema driver, Doriane Pin (Mercedes), continued her dominance to claim pole for the two races of the weekend. Abi Pulling was able to just beat out, Maya Weug (Ferrari), for the second position on the front row of the grid. ART GP driver Bianca Bustamante (McLaren) put her car in fifth for the race, just behind the Spanish driver, Nerea Martí (Tommy Hilfiger).
Doriane Pin (Mercedes) continued to dominate the entire weekend claiming her maiden F1 Academy win in Saudi Arabia. Starting from pole, Pin was able to stay ahead of the Alpine sponsored car of Abi Pulling and the Ferrari sponsored car of Maya Weug. Abi Pulling claimed the bonus point for the fastest lap and had a stellar race. Chloe Chambers, representing Haas on the Campos Racing team, made up four places in the race to finish best of the rest in P4. ART driver, Bianca Bustamante (McLaren), was able to take home some points for her team as she finished in 6th place, which was a much better result than her ART teammate Lia Block (Williams) who spun after hitting a kerb on the penultimate lap.
Once again, Doriane Pin (Mercedes) dominated, claiming the victory of race two for round one of the F1 Academy season. Abi Pulling (Alpine) stayed on Pin's tail and was able to sweep the fastest lap point for her team. The race featured two Safety Car restarts which shook up the order of drivers. Jessica Edgar, racing for Rodin Motorsport, finished in P5 ahead of the RB representative Amna Al Qubaisi who started in P14 and made her way up to P6. Bustamante (McLaren) started in P7 but finished the race in P8 after taking a penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
Unfortunately, Doriane Pin was handed a 20 second time penalty for taking the checkered flag twice. This promoted the Rodin of Abi Pulling (Alpine) to race leader and demoted Pin to P9.
F1 Academy will be broadcasted in over 160 international territories making it very accessible for people to watch and support the series. Fans will be able to view the session Live on the F1 Academy YouTube channel and X channel. It will also be streaming on F1 TV which will allow for more viewers to engage with the race weekend globally.
Round 2 of the F1 Academy season will resume May 3rd - 5th in Miami.
