Doriane Pin took the F1 Academy championship lead with her win in Race 1 at the Canadian GP, behind her was Ella Lloyd’s McLaren liveried car and Emma Felbermayr’s Sauber.
F1 Academy was gearing up for its first race of three in the Canadian GP, with Chloe Chambers on pole and rearing to take her first F1 Academy win. The Montreal weekend had an extra added to the schedule following a cancellation in Miami.
The sun was shining and without the forecast of rain, the F1 Academy Race 1 was ready to get underway.
Lights out
Chloe Chambers led the grid round Gilles Villeneuve circuit on the formation lap, lining up along. The lights went out and Chamber dove towards the first corner. Chambers held onto the lead into the first turn.
Nobles suffered damage to her front wing making contact with in the opening corners. But the fight for the lead wasn’t over as Alisha Palmowki down the side of Chambers, just too far back from her Red Bull back teammate to make the move stick.
But on Lap 2, Chambers and Palmowski made contact as she suffered a lock-up into the corner. Palmowski spun on track, able to rejoin but right at the back of the grid.
Meanwhile, Doriane Pin was taking full advantage of the now broken front wing on Chamber’s Campos, making the pass on lap 3. Chambers made an incredibly late lunge on Pin in front, but Chambers locked up, unable to make the move stick.
The Red Bull driver refused to give up, taking the lead from Pin. Just as Chambers looked to take the lead, Chambers make a mistake, her front wing coming off her car and being shown a black and orange flag – forced to come into the pits.
Pin took the lead, but Ella Loyd in the McLaren liveried car loomed on the back of the Mercedes.
Further down the order, the championship leader Maya Weug faced further struggles on her Ferrari liveried car. She came into the pits in the early laps but still suffered from issues with her car.
Weug dipped into the pits again on lap 6, but chose to keep running, most likely in hopes of figuring out the problems plaguing her car.
10 laps to go
Doriane Pin managed to pull a 1.3 second lead from Lloyd behind, a comfortable lead which, if maintained, would push her into the championship lead.
Palmowski was fighting hard to make up places front her incident on the opening laps. Palmowski made a move around the outside on lap two, but Chloe Chong in the Charlotte Tilbury liveried car wasn’t ready to give up the place.
With the two fighting Matilda Paatz, the wildcard entry for Montreal, joined in on the fight right on Palmowski’s gearbox. On lap 10, Palmowski pulled off a move down the inside moving ahead into ninth.
Chong took the ninth place back on the straight, but she ran wide and cut the corner, having to give the place back. As the three fighting came round the wall of champions, Matilda Paatz hit the kerb, a passenger as her Gatorade liveried car hit the wall.
A yellow flag was waved and shortly after a safety car was brought onto the circuit with Paatz car on the entry to the start-finish straight.
Safety car restart
With the Safety car out, the grid suddenly looked very different. Pin’s lead disappeared and for Palmowski, the hopes for a stronger result was on the cards.
Before the safety car, the gap between Palmowski in tenth and Hausmann in ninth was six seconds. But leading up to the safety car restart, that gap was non-existent. For Paatz, she luckily has two other race in the weekend. She’ll start much further up the grid after a strong qualifying.
On lap 14, the safety car was called into the pits. With just three racing laps left and drivers ready to put everything on the line.
Before the chicane Pin went, with a strong start as Lloyd was caught napping behind. There were no significant changes in the first corners, as Pin pushed to build a gap.
Ferreira locked up and ran wide in the restart and as she rejoined the pack she ploughed into the side of Chloe Chong. Suffering with a kick of oversteer from the dust on the track.
Everyone was then forced to slow as Ciconte and Crone made contact. Ciconte spun and not long after being shown the black and orange flag. With the chaos on track, a second safety car was brought out and the race finished behind the car.
Doriane Pin crossed the line to take the win and championship lead, with Ella Lloyd and Emma Felbermayr finishing the podium positions.
