Abbi Pulling quickest in opening practice at Zandvoort

British Alpine Academy driver Abbi Pulling was quickest in the opening practice at Zandvoort, for Rodin Motorsport, on Friday morning.

Pulling set the fastest time to kick off round 4 of the 2024 F1 Academy season, on F1 Academy's second visit to Zandvoort in the two seasons of the history of the championship.

The British driver was three tenths clear of Doriane Pin of Prema and backed by Mercedes. Pin was second, ahead of McLaren-backed ART driver Bianca Bustamante who was third.

Pulling has a 66-point lead in the drivers championship over Pin, who is second in the standings and level on points with third-place Chloe Chambers of Campos Racing.

How Free Practice 1 unfolded for Round 4 at Zandvoort 

For the first time in exactly two months, it was time for F1 Academy action to return for round 4 of the championship at Zandvoort, taking place as a support for the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix.

Zandvoort would make a return to the F1 Academy calendar for 2024 after making its debut in the inaugural F1 Academy season of 2023. The format has changed slightly between the seasons and instead of three races there will only be two.

Dutch driver Nina Gademen will be the wildcard entry for the round. Gademen is known for her content creator part of her life as well as her currently competing in the British F4 Championship for Fortec Motorsport.

16 cars would compete across the weekend as Friday morning would see the first session of the weekend, which would be the opening practice session of the weekend, which would see an overcast session for the teams and drivers.

With the green light at the end of the pit lane it would be the start of 40 minutes of practice, with the drivers to get some laps completed and get used to the different challenges the Zandvoort circuit presents.

In the early sections of the session and the first 10 minutes, McLaren backed ART driver Bianca Bustamante would have the fastest time by almost 1.5 seconds, ahead of her Williams backed teammate Lia Block. 

Bustamante would look quick early on but would have a moment at turn 1 and would have a little spin, but she would catch it well before it headed into the gravel trap and managed to keep the car going and continued on her way round.

Emely De Heus would go second quickest with less than 30 minutes to go as only five out of the 16 drivers had made their way out onto the circuit. She would set another improvement lap time to go within a tenth of Bustamante.

The Al Qubaisi sisters, Hamda and Amna, would be hoping for a good weekend for their team MP Motorsport, on MP Motorsport's home event. They would both go third and fourth with Amna Al Qubaisi intiially going third, before being pipped by Hamda. 

The track would then begin to ramp up and improve and home hero De Heus would go to the top of the time sheets with Hamda Al Qubaisi going into second. Emely De Heus at her home round going quickest for MP Motorsport, and her MP Motorsport Al Qubaisi would join her in the top two.

However, on the following lap, Al Qubaisi would leap back above to go fastest overall qith a great lap time from the Red Bull Racing backed driver. A 1:38.400 would be seven tenths faster than De Heus' time.

Chloe Chambers the most recent race winner with less than 20 minutes remaining would then split the two MP Motorsport cars. She would put her Campos car into second place and would look to try and find her second win across the weekend.

The track was continuing to improve and championship leaer Abbi Pulling would show great pace to go quickest with less than 15 minutes remaining. Pulling's 1:38.066 was over three tenths quicker than Hamda Al Qubaisi as there would be drivers finding improvements with slight spots of rain starting to fall as the session was heading towards the final 10 minutes.

Doriane Pin would find some decent pace heading into the final 10 and with nine minutes to go would go second, three hundredths ahead of Al Qubaisi, while Bustamante would then go to third, seven thousandths away from the Mercedes backed Prema of Doriane Pin.

Rain would continue to fall and make the race track unable to see an improvement of times as dry conditions are naturally quicker than wet conditions and therefore nothing would change, despite a few drivers heading out on wet tyres.

The chequered flag would soon be out signalling the end of the session with no one close to Abbi Pulling, as the British Alpine Academy driver, would set the fastest time in free practice 1 for Rodin Motorsport.

Pulling would be three tenths clear of Doriane Pin, who is second in the chamionship behind Pulling by 6 points. Pin in her Mercedes backed Prema would finish second ahead of Bianca Bustamante in third, for ART Grand Prix.

Hamda Al Qubaisi, who won twice in F1 Academy in 2023, was fourth for MP Motorsport ahead of Maya Weug, who was fifth for Prema, in her Ferrari livery and completed the top five.

Nerea Marti of Campos and Tommy Hilfiger was sixth ahead of wildcard entry Nina Gademen, representing The Female Quotient group in seventh. Emely De Heus, Jessica Edgar and Carrie Schreiner completed the top 10.

After 40 minutes of practice around the legendary Zandvoort Circuit, the drivers will have had running and would have got used to the circuit's challenges. However, they will have another 40 minutes of practice on Friday evening. 

2024 F1 Academy Championship: Round 4 - Netherlands free practice 1 result

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

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal