Report
RACE 1: Lloyd clings on for maiden victory in Jeddah ahead of Weug and Palmowski
Ella Lloyd claimed a masterful maiden F1 ACADEMY victory around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit as she seized the lead from her Rodin Motorsport teammate Emma Felbermayr at the first corner to win Race 1.
Despite a tantalising Safety Car restart, and immense pressure from Ferrari's Maya Weug, the McLaren driver maintained first position all the way to the chequered flag. She took her first win in the series as Weug got incredibly close to snatching it away right at the end, with Alisha Palmowski rounding out the podium finishers.
Although Felbermayr started on reverse grid pole, it was Lloyd who got the better launch at lights out as she sailed into the lead of the race, quickly establishing a sturdy gap back to her Rodin teammate. There was another great start for Palmowski down in P5 – she charged through to break into the top three, surviving an additional challenge from Alba Larsen before she masterfully took P2 on the road from Felbermayr.
The drivers jostled for position across the field throughout the opening laps, with Mercedes’ Doriane Pin getting stuck into an intense battle with Tina Hausmann as Weug improved to P3 just ahead.
Further back, disaster struck for Lia Block, who failed to qualify for the second round in a row – in Shanghai, an incident in Free Practice meant she could not take part in Qualifying – and here in Jeddah the American crashed out of yesterday’s session.
Whilst fighting to progress up the order, Block was tagged from behind by Haas driver Courtney Crone, spinning her car to face in the wrong direction on the track. She managed to get going once again, but it was a different story for Chloe Chong, whose car was damaged as she tried to take avoiding action in the incident.
The chaos triggered an appearance by the Safety Car to neutralise the pack, putting Lloyd under pressure to execute a flawless restart. As the race went on the McLaren driver kept her rivals at bay and built a gap of 0.8s to Palmowski.
Meanwhile, Felbermayr lost out for a second time as she dropped two positions to Pin and Hausmann. The Mercedes driver, and leader in the Drivers’ Standings, then set out to hunt down Larsen in P4, with the two battling around the circuit until Pin finally claimed the spot with a superb overtake down the inside on Lap 9.
A flurry of penalties were dealt out on the next lap – Wild Card driver Farah AlYousef received a five-second penalty for a false start, while Crone was handed a 10-second penalty for causing a collision with fellow American Block. The 24-year-old then became the second retirement of the day, joining Chong in the pits.
Back at the front, there was no time to take a breath even as Race 1 neared its end. On Lap 12 of 13, Ferrari driver Weug skilfully snatched P2 from Palmowski, leaving the latter at the mercy of Pin.
Despite Lloyd’s earlier dominance, Weug was just half a second behind on the final lap, filling the British racer’s mirrors as the two fought in a drag race to the chequered flag. Just one-tenth separated the duo over the line, but Lloyd held on brilliantly to secure her first victory in the series.
While Weug claimed her 11th podium, Palmowski narrowly kept Pin at bay to take the final podium position as the French racer continued her mighty streak of crossing the line in the top five.
Further down the order, Larsen finished in P5 ahead of Hausmann, as Chloe Chambers improved one spot to P7. Nina Gademan, still recovering from an injury sustained during in-season testing, took the final point in P8.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Chloe Chambers will be eyeing up victory as she starts from pole position for the first time in the series in Race 2, which gets underway at 15:05 local time on Sunday (UTC+3).