QUALIFYING: Pulling and Pin clinch poles in Zandvoort’s frenetic rain-affected session

Abbi Pulling sealed her fifth consecutive pole position of the season, with the Alpine driver’s early effort holding off a late improvement from Doriane Pin. For the first time in 2024, two different drivers will line up on pole for each race, as the Mercedes driver’s second-fastest effort narrowly put her on top for Race 2 by 0.011s ahead of Pulling.

Nerea Martí held on to third for Race 1, but it’ll be home hero Maya Weug who starts from the second row on Sunday.

There was no avoiding the rain at the start of the 30-minute session, with the conditions more alike to in-season testing than either Practice session so far.

Bianca Bustamante led the initial explorations of the Circuit Zandvoort, completing the early benchmark of a 1:50.846. Conditions proved to be tricky, with Amna Al Qubaisi momentarily stopping on track after a spin out of Turn 3 inside the first five minutes, but the RB driver managed to turn the car back around.

Jessica Edgar, Lia Block and Maya Weug then each went quicker in turn. Benefitting from her scrubbed set of wet tyres from the end of Free Practice 1, Pulling broke into the 1:47s to go almost a second and a half faster than the Ferrari driver.

The early advantage of grippier tyres allowed Pulling to dominate the first half of Qualifying, going faster again with a 1:47.053, as Weug reduced the gap to nine tenths. Another personal best of a 1:46.746 saw the Briton reextended her advantage out front to 1.2s.

Close calls for Bustamante and Chloe Chambers saw them each narrowly avoid the barriers at Turn 3, with the Haas driver spinning close to the barriers.

Williams’ Lia Block jumped up to second, nine tenths adrift of Pulling. Pin slotted into third, as improvements on their first set of tyres began to tail off and the field filtered into the pits.

The downpour abated for the final 10 minutes and Wild Card entry Nina Gademan immediately capitalised. The Dutch driver rose to second momentarily, with Pin demoting her to third just before Bustamante brought out the Red Flag, hitting the wall at Turn 3.

Running resumed with 6:33 left of the session and track position would be key. With the field bunched together, several drivers, including Pulling, backed off to find clean air. The pecking order chopped and changed across the final flying laps, with Aurelia Nobels putting her PUMA car into P2 momentarily.

Leapfrogging Nobels for P2, Pin sliced Pulling’s gap out front to 0.120s but couldn’t overhaul her hold on provisional pole for Race 1. However, her consistency paid off as the PREMA Racing driver snatched pole for Race 2 with a 1:46.986.

A last-gasp improvement for Martí elevated her to third for Race 1 ahead of Weug and Nobels. An impressive F1 ACADEMY debut for Gademan sees her start in P6, with Chambers, Block, Hamda Al Qubaisi and Edgar rounding out the top 10.

Race 2 sees Pin and Pulling line up alongside on the front row ahead of the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy duo of Weug and Nobels. Martí lines up fifth with Gademan for company in sixth, ahead of Block, Hamda Al Qubaisi, Kick Sauber’s Carrie Schreiner and Tina Hausmann for Aston Martin in 10th.

The on-track action is far from over as Race 1 is scheduled to get underway this afternoon. The lights go out at 17:05 local time.