Emma Felbermayr started the first race of the weekend from Pole Position with Rafaela Ferreira alongside her on the front row. But there would be drama from the moments the lights went out that would continue all the way until the final lap of the race. In the end, Doriane Pin narrowly took victory with Alisha Palmowski in second place and Chloe Chambers in third. Here’s how it happened.
F1 Academy Qualifying | 2025 Miami GP | Chambers Secures Pole
Drama from Lap 1
There was some brilliant defensive driving by Emma Felbermayr off the line for the Austrian driver to lead into T1. Behind her, however, it was not such a smooth start.
Ella Lloyd locked up hard going into T1, hitting the back of Ferreira who subsequently fell down the order. Lia Block was forced to take avoiding action so as to not be caught up in this. She also dropped down the pack as a result. Lloyd ultimately retired from the race which brought out the Safety Car.
Up at the front of the field, Felbermayr will have been breathing a sigh of relief as the Safety Car was called. She had been in a tight knit battle for the lead with French driver Doriane Pin. Pin had made it up to second place thanks to the chaos at the start of the race. Pin was fighting Felbermayr hard for the lead before the Safety Car was declared.
Further back, Chloe Chambers had moved up from eighth to fourth and Nina Gademan moved up to ninth from twelfth.
Racing Resumes
The Safety Car returned to the pits at the end of lap two. It was straight back to hard fought racing once this happened. Pin took the lead into turn 17 at the end of lap 3. But Felbermayr was not letting the lead of the race go that easily. The Austrian wasted no time in retaking the lead down into turn 1 on the start of the following lap.
Just behind them, the race for the lead was turning into a six way battle with Nobels, Chambers, Palmowski and Weug all involved with barely a few car lengths between all six drivers. Everything got very close for comfort in the next couple of laps. Felbermayr locked up into turn one and after a close battle, again with Pin, lost the lead of the race to the Mercedes backed driver. But things would go from bad to worse for her as in the space of a number of corners, she slid out of the podium paying positions altogether. Palmowski, Chambers and Weug all managed to get past her following some close wheel to wheel action. To add insult to injury, bodywork came loose on Felbermayr’s car which would mean she’d have to return to the pits to get it fixed.
F1 Academy Race 2 | 2025 Saudi Arabian GP | Weug Wins
More Safety Car Drama
On Lap 8, Chloe Chong brought out the second Safety Car of the race. The British driver drove into the Australian driver of Joanne Ciconte. The latter’s rear wheel was severely damaged, forcing her to pull over and retire at the side of the track. The former ended up taking herself out of the race too thanks to the contact, braking her steering column as a result.
Emma Felbermayr took this opportunity to heed the warning of receiving a black and orange flag. She went into the pits at the end of lap eight with part of her front bodywork coming off and needing to be fastened down again. She returned to the race at the back of the pack with only a handful of laps left to climb back up the order.
Sprint to the Finish
Racing got underway again at the start of lap ten. Palmowski wasted no time at all to challenge Nobels for second place. She proceeded to take it from her before chasing off after Pin in first. The two would continue to battle it out for the remainder of the race. The gap between the French and British drivers would ebb and flow over the last laps of the race. But in the end, it was Pin who emerged victorious with Palmowski having to settle for second.
Behind them, Nobels would continue to drop down the grid. Chloe Chambers overtook her to claim the final spot on the podium. Nobels would have to make do with sixth place come the end of the race. Maya Weug overtook her for fourth to minimise the damage done to her Championship lead. Nina Gademan (recovering from injury in a testing session back in Saudi Arabia) finished in an impressive fifth after starting down in twelfth.
Hausmann finished in seventh with Ferreira claiming the last points paying position in eighth. No doubt the Brazilian driver will be disappointed with the race after the contact sustained on the opening lap. But there’s a silver lining here and a testament to her skill behind the wheel in still managing to add a point to her tally by the end of the race.
Rest of the Results
Crone finished in ninth with Block in tenth, pushed back there after she received a penalty for overtaking off track and not giving the place back.
Larsen finished eleventh after starting from the pits. Havrda finished in twelfth with Wild Card Driver Ava Dobson in thirteenth. Anagostiadis finished in fourteenth with pole sitter Felbermayr in fifteenth, having sunk back down to the rear of the field on the last lap after neatly making her way back up the order following her trip into the pits.
Featured Image Credit: Mercedes Media Centre
Get 10% off all official F1 Merch at TheRaceWorks.com using code ‘EF1‘ at checkout.