An interrupted Practice session on Friday on the return of F1 Academy after the summer break saw Nina Gademan leading the pack at her home track in the one and only session on the first day of track action in Zandvoort.
The drivers were met with a damp and drying track as they headed out early on Saturday morning for their thirty minute qualifying session to set the grid for both races this weekend. All drivers ventured out with the wet tyres, testing out the conditions and grip.
A few drivers such as Lisa Billard, Esmee Kostermann and Championship contenders Emma Felbermayr and Alisha Palmowski found the limits, running wide at various corners of the track, showing just how little grip was to be found in these early stages. As the track began to come to the drivers, lap times began rolling in, each lap quicker than the next as the drivers found the grip around the twisting Zandvoort track.
As the halfway mark hit, the first red flag of the session would show as Gatorade backed driver Lisa Billard found herself beached in the gravel, unable to get herself back on track. The grid would file back into the pitlane with the top five as the session was stopped consisting of Palmowski, Alba Larsen, Ella Llyod, Nina Gademan and Rachel Roberston.
Some gambles were taken as the session went green again, drivers deciding to throw on the slick tyres, coming to the decision that the track had dried up enough for them to give it a shot. A lengthy warm up process was needed for those on the slicks as McLaren backed driver Llyod who had stayed on the wets, went to the top of the times followed by this weekends wild card driver Zoe Floerescu.
A second red flag would be shown at the five minutes mark as Rafaela Ferreira found the wall at the exit of turn two, heavily damaging her car as she tried to push on the slicks, putting herself out of qualifying. The drivers returned to the pitlane, many opting to change to the slicks for the final runs once the track went green once more.
Everyone except Llyod and Aston Martin backed Mathilda Paatz changed to the slicks, the pair taking the gamble of not having as much tyre warm up as those on the slicks with only a few minutes left in the session. Their gamble was very quickly shown to be the wrong choice as even on the out lap, drivers on the slicks were showing their superior pace, setting green sectors.
The Rodin pair of Llyod and Felbermayr would almost trip over each other along with Williams driver Jade Jaquet as the latter tried to get past Llyod who was still on the wet weather tyres. The lap times began to tumble rapidly as the drivers set off on their final laps. Purple and green sectors lit up the timing board as everyone, except for the drivers still on wets, began to improve, the track clearly ready for the slicks.
It would be championship leader Palmowski who would take yet another impressive pole position with a lap to put her 0.864 seconds ahead of the chasing pack, extending her lead by a further two points. Ferrari backed Alba Larsen would join her on the front row with Natalia Granada rounding out the top three with an impressive lap time.
Felbermayr, Gademan, Robertson, Floerescu and Megan Bruce would finish out the top eight meaning the Campos driver of Bruce and wildcard Floerescu claimed the front row spots for this afternoon’s reverse grid race.
F1 Academy’s reverse grid race takes place this afternoon at 14:35pm track time with the first race after the summer break.
Featured Image Credits: F1 Academy (on X)