Weug wins and takes championship lead in Saudi Arabia! F1 Academy Jeddah Race 2 report

Credit: Sam Bloxham

Ferrari-backed and MP Motorsport driver Maya Weug ran out victorious following a Chloe Chambers penalty in the Jeddah Race 2, to take the championship lead.

Weug took victory despite crossing the line in second place. However, the Dutch driver inherited the win following a five-second time penalty for Chambers, for forcing Weug off the track in the early stages of the 13-lap race.

However, Chambers drove brilliantly throughout the rest of the race and with the penalty managed to pull a five-second gap to Doriane Pin in third place to hold onto a top two finish behind Weug, who picked up her second top two finish of the weekend after finishing second in Saturday's Race 1.

Weug now takes the championship leading heading into next month's round three which will see a return to Florida, to go racing in Miami, which is in support of the Miami Grand Prix. The gap is seven points in Weug's favour to Pin in second place!

How Race 2 unfolded in Jeddah

Grand Prix Sunday rolled around at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix but it was also Race 2 day in F1 Academy, to complete the second round of the 2025 season.

Following an exciting reverse grid race in Race 1, where Ella Lloyd took victory for the first time in F1 Academy on Saturday despite being pressured all the way to the line for victory by Maya Weug, who was also hunting for her first victory of the 2025 season.

​ The starting grid was as they qualified with Chloe Chambers taking pole position for the very first time and she was to start from the front of the field. Doriane Pin shared the front row with Chambers and was hoping to extend her championship lead.

Behind them on the second row was two of Race 1's podium finishers. Starting third was Maya Weug, while alongside her in fourth was Alisha Palmowski. The race was ready for 13 laps of racing around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

The lights went out and a good start for Chambers saw her lead into the first sequence of corners, while not as good of a start from Pin, who was overtaken by the Ferrari-backed MP Motorsport driver Weug. Pin dropped to third.

While the first few all got away, there was a slow few starts that included Ella Lloyd, Joanne Ciconte, Aiva Agnostiadis, Lia Block and Farah Ayoulsef - the Wildcard entry for round two at Jeddah. They would all eventually get going but had some catching up to do!

There was action throughout the first few laps and on lap two, Race 1 pole sitter Emma Felbermayr was spun round after being hit in the rear by Racing Bull-backed Campos driver Rafaela Ferreira. Felbermayr dropped towards the back of the field and to 17th position.

Ferreira was punished for this, for causing a collision, and was handed a 10-second time penalty as a punishment for being deemed responsible by the Stewards.

Already there was a battle for race lead as Weug was catching the race leader Chambers, with the MP Motorsport driver seemingly having greater speed than the Campos American racer. Weug initially attempted to get by on lap 22 but would be shown the run off area by Chambers.

Chambers was penalised for this incident at turn 22 and it was an all-so important come the end of the race. The penalty awarded was a five-second time penalty, which was added to her race time at the chequered flag.

However, being shown the run off did not deter Weug and down the start finish straight she flew ahead of Chambers and moved into the race lead, and her strong pace was definitely showing.

A few corners later, Weug was offset by a curb which allowed Chambers back alongside Weug and both of them went off the circuit and rejoined with Chambers in the lead but Weug was down to third after Pin managed to find her way through into second place.

One lap later and Weug re-claimed second place demonstrating her speed was still very fast around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit! Fantastic stuff from the Dutch driver!

There was plenty of battling through the field and this was demonstrated by replays from lap six showing Joanne Ciconte getting by Chloe Chong for 10th position but had ground to make up to achieve further as Ferreira ahead had a penalty so there was an opportunity to score some further points.

A few laps later and a battle formed for fourth place with Danish driver Alba Larsen catching Red Bull Racing-backed Campos driver Alisha Palmowski, who had fallen back from chasing Pin for the final place on the podium.

However, Larsen was unable to get by Palmowski who was looking to hold on for another top four finish across the weekend of F1 Academy in Jeddah.

Working hard to extend her gap out in front was Chambers. She was unable to shake Weug off who was persistent as ever maintaining within a two-second gap of the American as the race headed in to the latter stages.

However, Chambers was extending the gap to Pin in third as the Red-Bull Ford backed Campos driver was keen in staying in the top two. On the final lap, she was able to pull over five seconds clear of Pin on the final lap.

As she crossed the line, she took the flag first but with the time penalty she was not to take victory in Saudi Arabia. That honour instead went to Maya Weug, who picked up her first win in 2025 and made it two top two finishes across the weekend.

Chambers though did enough to hold onto second place for Campos, and she had achieved a fantastic result and showed great pace with time against her in the race, to pull a five second plus gap on the rest of the drivers outside of the top two.

Doriane Pin had to be content for third place and completed the podium, with Alisha Palmowski in fourth and Alba Larsen completed the top five. In sixth place for the second successive race was Tina Hausmann, ahead of Nina Gademan who completed an impressive weekend to finish seventh.

Gademan had battled through the weekend whilst recovering from injury to take two points scoring finish from the weekend. The Alpine Academy driver ended up in hospital following a bad crash around Jeddah, during in-season tested.

Race 1 winner Ella Lloyd finished eighth ahead of Joanne Ciconte and Chloe Chong, who completed the top 10 and scored their first points of the season!

F1 Academy will return between May 2-4 for round three of the season taking place at Miami, in support of Formula One's Miami Grand Prix.

2025 F1 Academy Championship: Round 2 - Jeddah Race 2 Provisional Result

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

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal