Welsh winner in F1 Academy as Ella Lloyd becomes victorious! F1 Academy Jeddah Race 1 report

Credit: Steven Tee

For the first time in F1 Academy, Wales has a winner in the championship as Ella Lloyd drove excellently to win in the Race 1 at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia.

Lloyd took the lead into the first corner of the first lap and maintained the race lead throughout the race despite high pressure from behind late on, by Ferrari junior MP Motorsport driver Maya Weug.

However, McLaren Development Driver Lloyd took victory for Rodin Motorsport for her first win in the championship. Lloyd took victory ahead of Weug, who pushed hard from sixth to second but was short of victory but only just. Alisha Palmowski of Red Bull Racing and Campos Racing completed the podium.

Championship leader Doriane Pin fought hard through the field to finish fourth and was pursuing a podium all the way to the line but unfortunately for her, the Mercedes-backed Prema could not get by Palmowski.

Lloyd becomes the third different winner from the first three races of the season. Three different teams have also won a race in the first three with Campos, Prema and now Rodin Motorsport have all won one so far this season.

How Race 1 of F1 Academy in Jeddah unfolded

For the first time since March 23 it was time to go racing in the 2025 F1 Academy Championship on Saturday at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia. Following a busy Friday with Free Practice and Qualifying, attention turned to Race 1 on Saturday.

Friday qualifying saw Chloe Chambers take her first pole position in F1 Academy and will start Sunday's Race 2 from the front of the field. However, for Race 1 the top eight from qualifying was reversed to form the starting grid.

This was to mean that starting from pole position was the Kick Sauber-backed Rodin Motorsport driver Emma Felbermayr. It was a Rodin Motorsport front row lockout with Welsh driver Ella Lloyd startig second.

Behind them on the second row was Aston Martin-backed Prema driver Tina Hausmann and Tommy Hilfiger-backed MP Motorsport driver Alba Larsen.

Before the lights went out there would be bad news for Wildcard driver Farah Alyousef as she was out of position for the race start, after the Safety Car line. This was because she was behind Lia Block, who she was meant to start in front of.

The Stewards took a dim view of her actions and during the early parts of the race handed her a 10-second stop/go penalty for this infringement. This was not her only penalty for the start of Race 1, as she received a five-second time penalty for a false start.

Once the lights went out, Lloyd got the better of the starts between her and Rodin teammate and Felbermayr and led into the first corner. A great start from the Red Bull Racing-backed driver Alisha Palmowski who went from fifth all the way to third behind Felbermayr.

Slow starters at the back who looked to stall initially was the Rodin & Charlotte Tilbury driver Chloe Chong and Wildcard driver Alyousef, who dropped to the back two places in the field.

Palmowski continued her good start and took second from Felbermayr, at the end of lap two and it was a British 1-2 with Welsh driver Lloyd leading the Red Bull junior driver Palmowski. 

Felbermayr getting overtaken in the final corner left her offset to Weug and down the start finish straight the Dutch Ferrari Academy driver moved up to third for MP Motorsport, with Felbermayr losing two positions in as many corners.

Block had a difficult qualifying session as she crashed early on bringing out the red flag, which meant she would have to start from the back for both races across the weekend in Jeddah. More misery was added to her weekend when she was tagged around by ART's Courtney Crone.

Crone was blamed for the accident by the Stewards  and the Haas-backed driver received a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision. She later retired from the race with damage which looked likely to be sustained between her and Block.

Block and Crone were the head drivers of a four-car train towards the back with Nicole Havrda having to pit with damage. Also, Rodin driver Chong would make contact with Havrda, and the Brit could do nothing to avoid the collision with the Canadian and came off much worse.

A damaged front right suspension saw her retire from the race and on lap 4 the race's only Safety Car was introduced. Despite a good start for Lloyd, her over one second lead was wiped out and the field was bunched up together.

The Safety Car went in on lap seven with the race getting back underway on lap eight with Lloyd leading despite being under pressure from her fellow Brit Palmowski as they raced down into the first turn. Palmowski was under pressure also from the Ferrari-liveried MP driver of Weug.

Further back, there was a change of fifth as championship leader Doriane Pin made a move for fifth, as she passed the Sauber-backed Felbermayr. This allowed Pin to pursue Dane Alba Larsen for fourth.

Larsen, 16, put up a great fight to keep the Mercedes-backed Prema driver at bay for a while but unfortunately for her the pace of Pin was too strong and the French racer got by on lap nine of the race.

The top three however were out in front and were battling for victory with all of them very close to each other with Lloyd maintaining the race lead for Rodin Motorsport. Palmowski was in second but under pressure from Weug behind.

Weug had been pressuring Palmowski for many laps and the Ferrari-liveried MP Motorsport car saw an opportunity and went for it. Weug went to second fastest as down the start/finish straight the MP Motorsport car just seeming had more pace and got ahead of Palmowski before the first turn.

Onto the final lap and Weug set her sights on Lloyd and the Rodin driver had to show positive strength and good defensive skills to keep the Dutch racer behind. However, despite pressure all the way to the line, Lloyd held on to take a history win in F1 Academy at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

Lloyd would take the win to become the first Welsh racing driver to win in F1 Academy and also became the first McLaren driver to score a podium and victory at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on a Formula One weekend.

After leading every single lap it was a commanding and brilliant drive from Lloyd and making her one to watch for the rest of the season progresses forward. She led home Weug who had to settle for second place. In another great Race 1 drive, Alisha Palmowski was third and completed the podium.

Doriane Pin was fourth despite piling the pressure on Palmowski towards the end of the race. Another great drive from Alba Larsen completed the top five for MP Motorsport. Tina Hausmann is sixth for Prema ahead of Chloe Chambers for seventh place. Nina Gademan completed the point scoring in eighth with a brilliant result, as she fights the pain of recovery.

Race 2 will complete the weekend's action on Sunday.

2025 F1 Academy Championship: Round 2 - Jeddah Race 1 Provisional result

1. Ella Lloyd
2. Maya Weug
3. Alisha Palmowski
4. Doriane Pin
5. Alba Larsen
6. Tina Hausmann
7. Chloe Chambers
8. Nina Gademan
9. Emma Felbermayr
10. Aurelia Nobels
11. Joanne Ciconte
12. Lia Block
13. Rafaela Ferreira
14. Aiva Agnostiadis
15. Nicole Havrda
16. Farah Alyousef *WILDCARD ENTRY*
17. Courtney Crone DNF
18. Chloe Chong DNF

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal