Mercedes junior Doriane Pin snatched two pole positions, one fastest lap and twice crossed the chequered flag in first this weekend. But the end of the second race was marred by confusion, which resulted in her losing an otherwise dominant victory. Feeder Series takes you through her rollercoaster weekend. 

By Calla Kra-Caskey

The first F1 Academy weekend is in the books, and it looks like this year will be a good one Doriane Pin. The French driver’s display of pace started on Thursday afternoon, where she led F1 Academy’s first practice session of the year by two-tenths over the next closest driver. Through the weekend, that gap would only increase. 

This year, F1 Academy switched to a single qualifying session, where drivers’ fastest laps are compared to determine the grid for the first race and their second fastest laps are compared to determine the grid for the second race. In the Thursday evening qualifying session, Pin was the only driver to put her car into the 2:03s, which she did twice. Her fastest qualifying lap was a speedy 2:03.472, over seven-tenths faster than runner-up Abbi Pulling. Her second best time was 2:03.699, again beating Pulling to pole, this time by over six-tenths.

Both races were riddled with incidents in the middle of the pack, but Pin sailed smoothly away at the front to lead every racing lap of the weekend. The only other driver who could hang onto her was Pulling, remaining within two seconds of her throughout. In fact, the only time where Pin didn’t appear to be the fastest on-track was when Pulling snatched the fastest lap away from her on the 10th lap of race one. 

One safety car in the first race and two in the second provided the opportunity for Pin to protect her lead during a rolling restart. In a post-race press conference with Feeder Series and selected media, Pin said, “When you’re leading and you take an advantage and then you see the safety car panel, you’re like, ‘No, really?’ But it’s part of racing. You also have to be really smart and strong for the safety car restart. 

“The one of [the first race] was good, the first one of today was not mega, so I tried to be a little bit smarter for the second safety car restart… when you’re leading you’re doing the pace, it’s alright. You’re the maestro of the pace, so it’s always better than when you start behind and have to look and keep your eyes on the leader.”

When asked about her strengths in F1 Academy, Pin pointed toward her consistency.

“We always have been improving constantly without mistakes. In the race, we were pretty consistent in terms of lap time and race pace, so that’s very positive to be improving every round. 

“Obviously, F1 Academy is an amazing championship to be moving women into motorsport, and because of being part of the F1 weekend, it’s also an amazing opportunity for us to work with the manufacturers… And watching F1 and F2 and learning so much, I think everything is positive for this championship.” 

A costly error

In the second race, Pin upped the pace at the end and took the extra point for recording the fastest lap, not allowing Pulling to take the honour from her this time. With her increasing her pace, she also extended her provisional winning margin to just under two seconds from the first race’s eight-tenth gap.

However, while focusing on pushing all-out, Pin and Prema made a costly mistake. Apparently missing the chequered flag, Pin continued around the circuit at full speed and ended up taking the chequered flag twice. This led to an awkward moment where she joined fellow podium sitters Pulling and Weug on the straight and participated in a subdued interview. 

In the cool down room, Pin told the other drivers that she had previously been told to push for the fastest lap. She explained her side in the post-race press conference.

“I had a little bit of an issue with the radio. I couldn’t hear anything by the engineers so I didn’t know if it was the last lap or not. I kept pushing in case it was the last lap.”

A Prema representative confirmed to Feeder Series that the radio wasn’t working at that point.

Unfortunately for Pin, the incident was noted by the stewards and she was handed a drive-through penalty. Since this could not be served during the race, it was converted to a 20-second penalty, dropping her to ninth. Pulling was handed the race win and subsequently the lead in the championship. 

Pin currently stands third in the standings with 32 points, 12 behind Pulling in first and one behind Maya Weug in second, and will no doubt be ready to fight for the points that were taken from her in Miami this May.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency