After the opening round in Jeddah two months ago, the F1 Academy is back this weekend in Miami for the second event of the season. In Saudi Arabia, Doriane Pin dominated the entire weekend by winning the first race then the second before being penalized for not having slowed down after the checkered flag, leaving first place to Abbi Pulling, current leader of the championship. The Briton was also the only one to compete with the Prema driver.
Doriane Pin has found herself a worthy opponent for this F1 Academy season. This Saturday, it was Abbi Pulling who dominated the qualifying session by taking pole position in both races of the weekend. As a reminder, the first best time of each driver determines the grid for the first race while the second best time sets the starting grid for the second race.
Doriane Pin and her compatriot, Lola Lovinfosse, qualified in second and tenth place respectively for race 1 and will start from third and eleventh place for race 2 which will take place on Sunday.
Doriane Pin had a very good start. The French driver retained her second place behind the Briton who created a gap of more than a second at the end of the first lap in order to take cover. The takeoff was not the same for Lola Lovinfosse who lost three places over the first three laps. Starting tenth, the French driver did not take advantage of the stalling of Bianca Bustamante, who remained glued to the grid.
Doriane Pin increased the pace on the fourth lap by setting the best time in the race. However, Alpine protégé Abbi Pulling continued to increase the gap, going beyond two seconds at the halfway mark. Behind, a problem on Lia Block’s car allowed Lola Lovinfosse to move up to eleventh place after getting the better of Schreiner.
Five laps from the checkered flag, Abbi Pulling set the fastest lap in the race, consolidating her first place more than three seconds behind Doriane Pin. After stalling at the start, Bianca Bustamante worked her way back to ninth but was penalized five seconds for repeatedly exceeding the track limits.
Already victorious in Jeddah, Abbi Pulling won for the second time this season. She was ahead of Doriane Pin by more than four seconds and Chloe Chambers who completed the podium. After Nobels went off track, Lola Lovinfosse recovered tenth place, bringing her into the points.
