Alisha Palmowski wins the F1 Academy Race 1 in Shanghai. A thrilling reverse grid session has set the scene for the 2025 campaign.
Dutch Driver Nina Gademan starts in pole position for Race 1 of the 2025 F1 Academy season. After being last year’s wild card entry in Zandvoort, the Alpine-backed driver has some experience in this field of rookies. Alongside Gademan is Sauber-backed rookie Emma Felbermayr. The eighteen-year-old driver had an impressive first qualifying session yesterday and will be eager to feature on the podium in the first race.
Campos’ Rafaela Ferreira will face a three-place grid penalty for both races this weekend. The Brazilian driver collided with Lia Block in free practice on Friday, so Block will start from the back of the grid as she was unable to participate in the qualifying session.
Hometown hero Shi Wei will be starting alongside Lia Block on the back row. iWith all the support of the home crowd.
On the formation lap, Wei unfortunately stalls on the grid. However, she is quickly able to get going again and catch up to the field in front.
Ella Lloyd will start from the pit lane as her tyres are under pressure. This adds to an already unfortunate weekend for the McLaren-backed driver.
Lights out
As the five lights go out for the first race of 2025, Nina Gademan has a great start immediately clearing the field. Campos drivers Chloe Chambers and Alisha Palmowski immediately attack for the podium positions. The Red Bull-backed driver managed to make it up to P2, with Chambers fighting behind for P3. An amazing start from the American driver, who started this race in P5.
Shi Wei’s woes continue as she has a spin on lap 1, beaching her car in the grass. Unfortunately, she has to retire on her home grand prix. This brings out the safety car to neutralise the race and get the car recovered.
In the Safety Car period, the top 3 are Gademan, Palmowski and Emma Felbermayr. Felbermayr has very limited experience in single-seaters, as this is her first year stepping up from karting. The young driver will be using these first races as learning experiences for the future.
Despite being behind the safety car, multiple cars have been noted for a starting infringement. The official notification says the cars were out of position at the safety car line. It will likely result in a time penalty for these drivers.
Safety Car is back before we know it
The Safety Car comes in at the end of lap 4, Gademan backs the pack up and is now under pressure to keep her position. Into turn 1, Chloe Chambers pulls off a move on the 18-year-old Sauber driver to elevate herself to third. The woes don’t stop there for the young driver, who is immediately under pressure from Weug and Pin. At the end of lap 5 Felbermayr is in sixth place.
The Safety Car doesn’t rest for long; Aurelia Nobles gets tagged by Lia Block, ending up in the grass. Bringing out the safety car for the second time today. It’s been a tough weekend for the ART team, with this collision between teammates and the chassis repair on Friday.
On the restart, Gademan is under more pressure, having the two competitive Campos drivers behind her. However, the Safety car is brought out for the third time in back-to-back-to-back safety cars. The incident saw Chloe Chong on cold tyres lock up and rear-end Nicole Havrda. Ending the American Express driver’s race prematurely.
Frustration is growing among these drivers, who hasn’t been able to have many racing laps in the season opener.
Lia Block has been given a 10-second penalty for causing a collision with her teammate. This emphasises the bad luck ART and Block have faced through the Chinese Grand Prix.
Elsewhere, Joanne Ciconte is given a 10-stop-go penalty for a starting procedure infringement. She serves the penalty under the safety car, coming out last. This penalty casts a cloud over an extremely promising weekend from the Australian driver.
Chloe Chong is awarded a 10-second penalty for causing a collision earlier in the race. It has truly been a race of chaos and carnage.
The final laps of F1 Academy Race 1
There will be three racing laps before the chequered flag, with all drivers wanting to get through the few laps without another intervention.
Nina Gademnan manages to keep her position out front. Leading the field early, catching everyone out. The battle for P3 is heating up, with Chambers immediately under pressure from Weug, 0.5 seconds behind. Chambers is quickly able to put pressure on her teammate in front, and escape from the clutches Weug
Joanne Ciconte is given another 10-second stop-go penalty for serving it under the safety car
Nina Gademan has a technical issue and drops down to 14th. The fight for the victory is between Campos teammates Palmowski and Chambers.
Alba Larsen has an incident with Felbermayr. However, both drivers can continue to the final lap of the race. Pin utilises her F1 Academy experience and manages to overtake them both.
On the final lap, Chambers is 0.2 seconds behind her teammate. Throughout the final sector, both Red Bull-backed drivers manage to keep it clean. Most importantly, the drivers manage to keep Weug in third.
Campos have secured their first 1-2 of the 2025 F1 Academy season, starting off strong for the junior team. Maya Weug, tomorrow’s pole sitter comes in third for an amazing start to her final campaign in F1 Academy.
F1 Academy will be back for race 2 of the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix tomorrow, with Maya Weug starting out front.
