Ella Lloyd scored her maiden win, Chloe Chambers took her first pole position and Maya Weug now leads the championship standings after F1 Academy’s second round in Jeddah. Feeder Series reviews what happened over the weekend. 

By Kaylene Lau

Jeddah hosted the second round of F1 Academy over the weekend. Unlike the Shanghai International Circuit, which hosted the season opener, the Jeddah Corniche Circuit was a track where all returning drivers had driven, while the rookies got time to familiarise themselves with the circuit in testing earlier this month. 

Practice and qualifying

Weug’s final lap of a 2:05.357 in practice was the fastest, putting her 0.030s ahead of Campos’ Alisha Palmowski. Doriane Pin, who won at this circuit last year, was third fastest with a lap time of 2:05.566.

In qualifying, ART’s Lia Block hit the barriers at the final corner early on in the session, bringing the session to a halt. Block, who also missed out on qualifying in Shanghai because of damage sustained in the practice session, once again had to start both races once again from the back of the grid.

Campos’ Chambers was fastest in qualifying, taking her first pole position in F1 Academy. Chambers’ lap, a 2:04.320, was 0.255s faster than that of second-placed Pin, who took pole in both qualifying sessions last year in Jeddah. Weug rounded out the top three with a time of 2:04.844, while Palmowski was the fastest among the rookies, qualifying fourth on the grid. Chambers’ pole position was also Campos’ first pole in the series since Nerea Martí’s at Valencia in 2023. 

MP’s Emma Felbermayr, who stepped up to single-seaters this year, qualified eighth on the grid, meaning that she would start Saturday’s reverse-grid race from pole position. 

Race 1 

Lloyd, starting from second on the grid, took the lead of the race from Felbermayr off the line. Palmowski and MP’s Alba Hurup Larsen both made up places on Tina Hausmann at the start, going wheel to wheel as they battled for third. Palmowski came out ahead as Larsen dropped into the clutches of Weug, who then got past for fourth at Turh 24 after the Dane ran wide. 

On the second lap, Lloyd began to pull away from the pack as Felbermayr, Palmowski and Weug fought for second. Palmowski made a move down the inside of Felbermayr at Turn 27 to take second, with Weug following her through on the start-finish straight. 

Block’s difficult weekend continued in race one when teammate Courtney Crone hit the rear of her car and spun her at Turn 2 on the third lap. While Block and Crone were able to continue on track, Rodin’s Chloe Chong stopped off track after the incident left her with damage as she hit Hitech’s Nicole Havrda while attempting to take avoiding action. The Canadian pitted for repairs before going back on track, while Crone was given a 10-second time penalty for the incident but later retired from the race.

The safety car came out on lap four as the track was being cleared. 

When it was brought back in at the end of lap seven, Lloyd maintained her lead in the race as Weug challenged Palmowski for second. Pin and her Prema teammate Tina Hausmann overtook Felbermayr for fifth and sixth respectively, and Pin then began chasing down Larsen for fourth. 

At the end of lap nine, Pin made the move on Larsen at Turn 27. Weug, who had been battling with Palmowski for second for the majority of the race, overtook the Campos driver into the first corner on lap 12. 

Weug got within 0.176s of Lloyd by the chequered flag, but the Welsh driver took her first win in the series and the first victory for a McLaren-backed driver. Pin chased Palmowski for the last spot on the podium in the closing laps and set the fastest lap of the race, but Palmowski defended her position and held on to third. 

Race 2

Polesitter Chambers got a good launch off the start and maintained her lead as Weug, who started third on the grid, overtook Pin for second. Race one winner Lloyd, who qualified seventh, lagged while leaving the grid. She eventually got going, but she had a challenge in front of her to make up the six places she had lost at the start. 

On lap two, contact between Campos’ Rafaela Ferreira and Felbermayr at Turn 2 caused the Austrian driver to spin on track and drop from eighth to 17th. Ferreira was later given a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision. 

Weug and Chambers were now battling it out for first, with Pin close behind. Weug took the lead at Turn 1 on the third lap, but Chambers drew alongside at Turn 5. They ran side by side for several corners until Chambers’ attempt at Turn 8 sent both cars off track Chambers emerged in front while Pin took the opportunity to slip past Weug and into second, but the Ferrari-backed driver quickly took back the position with an overtake around the outside of Turn 1 on lap four. 

With three laps to go, Chambers was given a five-second time penalty for forcing Weug off the track during their earlier battle. With Weug just over in a second in arrears and keeping pace, the Campos driver now had a task ahead of her to build a gap of more than five seconds between her and third-placed Pin to get at least second. 

Chambers eventually built a gap of 5.065s over Pin to nab second. But Weug who inherited the race win, taking her first win of the season and the first for a Ferrari-backed driver at the circuit since Marcus Armstrong won the first single-seater race at the track in 2021. 

Behind Pin were Palmowski, Larsen, Hausmann and Nina Gademan. Ferreira, who originally finished eighth, dropped out of the points after the time penalty was imposed. That promoted Lloyd to eighth after her difficult start to the race, with MP’s Joanne Ciconte and Rodin’s Chong also scoring their first points of the season with ninth and 10th places respectively. 

Weug now leads the championship standings with 59 points, followed by Pin with 52. Chambers rounds out the top three with 47 points. 

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Chloe Chambers, 2:04.320	Doriane Pin, +0.255s	Maya Weug, +0.524s
Race 1 (13 laps)	Ella Lloyd, 30:00.870	Maya Weug, +0.176s	Alisha Palmowski, +1.823s
Race 2 (13 laps)	Maya Weug, 27:18.850	Chloe Chambers, +2.784s	Doriane Pin, +2.849s

Standings	Drivers	Teams
P1	Maya Weug, 59	Campos Racing, 91
P2	Doriane Pin, 52	MP Motorsport, 89
P3	Chloe Chambers, 47	Prema Racing, 71
P4	Alisha Palmowski, 36	Rodin Motorsport, 34
P5	Alba Hurup Larsen, 28	ART Grand Prix, 2
P6	Ella Lloyd, 23	Hitech, 1
P7	Tina Hausmann, 11
P8	Emma Felbermayr, 10
P9	Rafaela Ferreira, 8
P10	Nina Gademan, 8

Read the previous round’s report here.

Header photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool