Alisha Palmowski secures her fourth F1 Academy victory of the season with a lights to flag lead in the feature race at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Earlier In The Weekend
It was a strong start to the weekend for Alisha Palmowski as she secured pole position in a tricky and interrupted qualifying session. An outstanding lap in damp conditions left her 0.864 seconds ahead of the field. It was Alba Larsen and the rookie Natalia Granada that took P2 and P3 respectively. The chasing championship challenger, Emma Felbermayr, found herself only in P4, giving Palmowski another chance to extend her championship lead.
The reverse grid race saw a disaster for some of our top contenders as Palmowski stalled on the grid and fell to the back of the pack. Granada also had a disappointing race as she made a mistake on lap 2 leaving her in the wall and out of the race.
It was Payton Wescott who secured her maiden victory in the reverse grid race with Alba Larsen and Nina Gademan joining her on the podium.
Lights Out
The grid was well behaved as the lights went out with little movement into turn one. After a poor start from Alisha Palmowski in yesterdays reverse grid race, it was a nervous start from pole. Despite a poor launch Palmowski held the lead well into turn one with Alba Larsen closed behind in P2. Nina Gademan was the biggest winner on lap one making her way past Emma Felbermayr and Natalia Grenada to make it up to P3. Mclaren backed Ella Lloyd also saw a successful first lap as gained three positions and made her way up to P8 after a disappointing qualifying.
The field spread out quickly with Larsen and Palmowski having a private battle at the front lap after lap. Larsen managed one attempted overtake around the outside of turn one but was shuffled wide and couldn’t complete the move. The two sat nose to tail for the first half of the race and it was obvious Larsen had more pace in this phase of the race. Despite being quicker, the nature of the track leaves little opportunity to overtake and after one attempt Larsen couldn’t get close enough into turn one a second time. As we moved into the second half of the race Larsen began to fall back slightly and couldn’t find a second wind. She spent the final laps of the race following 1.5 seconds behind the leader.
Behind, Dutch driver Nina Gademan had a successful but lonely home race as she sat four seconds behind the leader and three seconds ahead of Granada in P4. The midfield was fierce from lights to flag as the fight for P6 involved six drivers in close proximity for the duration of the race. We saw some attempted moves into turn one as well as some mild contact but again, it is notoriously difficult to overtake around this circuit leaving the positions mostly unchanged. It was Megan Bruce who secured P6 followed by Rachel Robertson, Ella Lloyd, Payton Wescott and Esmee Kosterman who completed the top ten.
It was a standout race for Lisa Billard after a tough qualifying in which crashed and had to start the race from the very back. By lap two she was up four positions to P14 after a terrific start. Despite the difficulty of overtaking around this track, she then made her way past Ella Stevens and Ava Dobson into turn one and finished the race up in an impressive P12.
Championship Lead Extended
Alisha Palmowski secured yet another victory in this F1 Academy season and led home Alba Larsen by almost three seconds as she secured P2 with Nina Gademan taking P3 from eight seconds behind. This leaves Palmoswki with a 45 point lead over Emma Felbermayr in the championship and means its possible for her to secure the championship in the next round at Austin.
F1 Academy will return 23-25 October at the US Grand Prix.
Image Credit: F1 Academy X