Doriane Pin takes the Race 1 win in Miami

IMAGE: Pauline Ballet

 Doriane Pin takes the win in Race 1 in Miami after a race full of action.

The French Prema driver fought off her competitors in what was a very eventful race to stand on the podium for the third time in Race 1 this season.

Despite putting the pressure on in the final lap, Alisha Palmowski has to settle for second with her teammate and tomorrow's polesitter Chloe Chambers coming home in third - a great weekend for the Campos team so far who will be looking to challenge in the Constructor's championship.

Maya Weug finished in P4 after making up six places from the start - a good result for the MP Motorsport driver. 

As it happened

The reverse grid format that has been introduced into the series for the first of the two races in the weekend for the 2025 season has been providing great action in the race and today was no different.

Lights out with the sun back shining saw reverse grid polesitter Emma Felbermayr have a great start to the race, keeping Rafaela Ferreira at bay behind her going into Turn 1. 

Mclaren's Ella Lloyd had a lock up going into the breaking zone for Turn 1, causing her to go into the back of   and sent her into the run off area. She had to retire from the race and the stewards noted the incident between Lloyd and Ferreira for causing a collision.

Green flag was shown and the safety car came into the pits on Lap 3 and racing got going again. Felbermayr dealt with the restart well but Pin was hot on her heels and looking to take the lead. 

Pin takes the lead at the end of Lap 3 after a great battle between herself and Felbermayr but it's not long before Pin is looking at the back of the Rodin Motorsport car once again as Felbermayr retakes the lead at the start of Lap 4.

A huge lock up for Felbermayr allowed Pin to capitalise and take the lead on Lap 5. Unfortunately, the Austrian was left tumbling down the order and ended up in P6 behind Maya Weug.  

Palmowski takes second on Lap 6 with a brilliant pass on the ART of Aurelia Nobels. 

Joanne Ciconte is noted for a false start as she was believed to have started out of position and this was to be looked at by the stewards.

The safety car made a return on Lap 6 after a collision between Joanne Ciconte, Chloe Chong, and Nicole Havrda going into Turn 10. The incident saw Ciconte sustain hefty damage to her left rear suspension and the damage left her out of the race. 

Felbermayr was shown a black and orange flag due to the extent of the damage on her car, meaning she had to return to the pits to get the issue resolved. This put an end to her hopes of scoring decent points after such a strong start to the race.

Despite making it back to the pits initially following the incident, Chong was also forced to retire the car due to a broken steering arm - a big shame for the British driver.

Racing got back underway on Lap 10 of 13 and Pin leads Alisha Palmowski going into the latter stages of Race 1.

Chambers made a great move on Nobels through Turns 10, 11, and 12 to put herself into the podium places on Lap 10. Nobels is then passed again on Lap 11 by championship leader Maya Weug who had made great progress through the field after starting in 10th.

Things went bad to worse for Nobels as she drops down to sixth on Lap 12 after being passed by her ART teammate Lia Block.

Chequered flag was waved and it was Pin who saw it first despite Palmowski piling on the pressure on the last lap. It however wasn't quite enough for the win this time.

Lia Block was handed a five-second penalty post race due to leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

Top 10 finishers in Race 1
1. Doriane Pin
2. Alisha Palmowski
3. Chloe Chambers
4. Maya Weug
5. Nina Gademan
6. Aurelia Nobels 
7. Tina Hausmann
8. Rafaela Ferreira
9.  Courtney Crone
10. Lia Block

Katie Shepherd 
Writer - F1 Journal