Abbi Pulling extends championship lead with fifth win of the season!

Abbi Pulling (pictured) during her victory in the re-scheduled race 1 on Sunday morning. Credit: Joe Portlock via Getty Images

British Alpine Academy driver Abbi Pulling, of Rodin Motorsport, took victory in the re-scheduled F1 Academy race at Zandvoort, on Sunday morning, for his fifth win of the year.

Pulling took her fifth win of the season after also starting from pole for the fifth time of the season as she won by over five seconds to second place Nerea Marti, after Doriane Pin took a five-second time penalty for a false start. Maya Weug would complete the top three, at her home event, in third.

The race would be re-scheduled after severe weather conditions of rain and wind made the track unsafe to race. Therefore, as safety is paramount, the race was postponed and re-scheduled for early on Sunday morning - 08:30 UK time.

Thanks to victory, Abbi Pulling extends her championship lead over Doriane Pin, who is second in the standings, after coming into round 4 with a 66-point lead.

How the F1 Academy race 1 unfolded at Zandvoort

After two months since the last racing action it was time for racing in the 2024 F1 Academy championship for round four, taking place at the Zandvoort circuit.

Race 1 would initially be supposed to take place in late Saturday afternoon but was postponed due to unsafe weather conditions, as severe rain and wind made it unsafe to go racing. This would mean the race would be re-scheduled for Sunday morning and the drivers ad teams would race twice on Sunday, with the race 2 still taking place on the same day.

In terms of how the grid would look, that would be determined by the order of how qualifying finished on Saturday morning, which would see the fifth consecutive pole position for Abbi Pulling, and she would start from the front. Alongside her would be Doriane Pin, who would start race 2 from pole position as her second best lap time was better than everyone else's second best time.

It would be time to go racing on Grand Prix Sunday as all 16 cars took to the grid for the shortened race 1, which would be 13 laps instead of the original 17.

The lights would go out and a great launch from Abbi Pulling would see her take the lead into the first corner as Doriane Pin would find herself under pressure from Nerea Marti, but would manage to stay in front after the first few corners.

Further around the lap, after a great qualifying, Nina Gademan was hounding Aurelia Nobes for fifth and by the second lap, she would complete the move and get herself ahead of the ART of Nobels, who is backed by Puma.

Nobels would be struggling to settle back down into a rhythm, after being passed by Gademen at the start, and a couple of laps later, the Brazilian would lose another position and drop to seventh as Chloe Chambers found her way through.

At the race start, Doriane Pin would be found to have jumped the start as would Amna Al Qubaisi. Pin, backed by Mercedes and driving for Prema, and Al Qubaisi, backed by Visa RB and driving for MP Motorsport, would both be handed a five-second time penalty each. 

The five-second time penalty for Pin, would require her to push over the remaining laps, to try and pull five seconds to third place Nerea Marti, so she would not lose even more points to Abbi Pulling in the championship. 

Lap 9 and Pulling was controlling the pace out front and was over three seconds clear of Pin and was showing great speed once again, and she was in search for her fifth win of the season.

Onto the final three laps and there was a battle for seventh, which was developing into a three-way debate between the ART cars of Aurelia Nobels and Lia Block as well as the MP Motorsport of Hamda Al Qubaisi.

Lap 12, and after a tricky couple of corners  in the final sector, Williams Academy's Lia Bock was right under pressure from Hamda Al Qubaisi, backed by Red Bull Racing, as they made their way down the start/finish straight onto the final lap. Al Qubaisi had the momentum and into turn 1, made the overtake complete and would find herself into eighth.

In the final lap, no one could get near Abbi Pulling just like throughout the entire race and the Alpine Academy driver of Rodin Motorsport would see the chequered flag first to take victory. Pulling would take her fifth win of the season and would take a big haul of points with Pin's penalty.

Pin would initially cross the line in second but with her five second penalty would drop all the way down to fifth, therefore, Spanish driver Nerea Marti would finish second for Campos Racing. Maya Weug, on home soil, would be the driver to inherit third place and the Ferrari backed Prema would be happy with that result.

Nina Gademan in a great effort would be promoted to fourth in a fantastic result for her and would score a top five finish on debut in the F1 Academy series. A great achievement and would have finished in the top five, even without Pin's penalty.

Chloe Chambers was sixth for Campos ahead of ART's Puma backed Aurelia Nobels, who was seventh. Hamda Al Qubaisi would take eighth ahead of Lia Block with Sauber backed Campos driver, Carrie Schreiner, who completed the top 10.

After a race of action that produced drama and a fifth win of the season for Abbi Pulling, there would be just over an hour to wait until the originally scheduled race 2, which would be later on Sunday morning on Grand Prix Sunday.

2024 F1 Academy Championship: Round 4 - Netherlands race 1 provisional classification

1. Abbi Pulling (Great Britain, Rodin Motorsport)
2. Nerea Marti (Spain, Campos Racing)
3. Maya Weug (Netherlands, Prema Racing)
4. Nina Gademan (Netherlands, Prema Racing) *WILDCARD ENTRY*
5. Doriane Pin (France, Prema Racing)
6. Chloe Chambers (United States, Campos Racing)
7. Aurelia Nobels (Brazil, ART Grand Prix)
8. Hamda Al Qubaisi (United Arab Emirates, MP Motorsport)
9. Lia Block (United States, ART Grand Prix)
10. Carrie Schreiner (Germany, Campos Racing)
11. Tina Hausmann (Switzerland, Prema Racing)
12. Jessica Edgar (Great Britain, Rodin Motorsport)
13. Lola Lovinfosse (France, Rodin Motorsport)
14. Bianca Bustamante (Philippines, ART Grand Prix)
15. Emely De Heus (Netherlands, MP Motorsport)
16. Amna Al Qubaisi (United Arab Emirates, MP Motorsport)

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal