F1 Academy’s first trip to Montréal saw Doriane Pin retake the championship lead, Emma Felbermayr grab her first single-seater victory and Chloe Chambers score her first win of the season in the third race. Feeder Series reviews what happened over the weekend with insights from the paddock. 

By Kaylene Lau

The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve hosted the fourth round of F1 Academy this weekend, with three races instead of the regular two because of the postponed Miami race. 

Race one winner Pin of Prema Racing retook the championship lead in Montréal as title rival Maya Weug struggled throughout the weekend with engine issues. Felbermayr, who lost her third-place finish in race one after being disqualified, got redemption by winning the second race only a few hours later. Chambers converted pole to victory in the lone race on Sunday and jumped to second in the standings. 

Practice and qualifying 

Campos Racing’s Alisha Palmowski set the fastest lap time in the sole practice session of the weekend with a 1:38.898, 0.074s faster than second-placed Chambers. MP Motorsport’s Alba Larsen rounded out the top three for practice with a 1:39.509. 

An engine issue cost Weug, who held a one-point championship lead entering the round, the chance to set a competitive lap time in practice. Pin, her closest championship rival, finished eighth in the session. 

In qualifying, Chambers took her third pole position in a row by setting a 1:38.125. With Palmowski second-fastest, 0.305s behind Chambers, Campos took their second 1-2 in a row. Pin qualified third with a 1:38.608, giving her a strong opportunity to jump to the top of the standings as Weug qualified 15th. 

Rodin Motorsport’s Chloe Chong qualified eighth, giving her reverse-grid pole for the second race. 

Race 1

Chambers started on pole ahead of teammate Palmowski and Pin for race one at Montréal, the rescheduled second race from Miami.

The American driver maintained her lead at the start, but on lap two, Palmowski locked up while attempting a move down the inside at Turn 1, making contact with her teammate. Palmowski spun on track and dropped to 15th, while damage to Chambers’ front wing enabled Pin to make a move for the lead at Turn 8 the next lap. 

The damage didn’t stop Chambers from fighting back, and she made a bold move into Turn 3 the next lap to briefly retake the race lead from Pin. But an error from Chambers, coupled with the damage to her front wing, allowed both Pin and Lloyd to capitalise and overtake her exiting Turn 7.

By then, the black and orange flag was waved for Chambers, who had to pit to replace her front wing. This promoted Felbermayr to third. 

On a recovery drive, Palmowski was running 10th by lap eight and chasing down Chong. By lap nine, wild card entry Mathilda Paatz, running 11th, joined the fight as well. Palmowski managed to pass Chong at the hairpin on lap 10, though Chong edged ahead entering the braking zone at the final chicane.

The British-Canadian driver cut the chicane, however, and got ready to give the position back to Palmowski – right when Paatz hit the wall at Turn 14 just behind the pair. The incident brought out the safety car, and drivers were instructed to follow the safety car through the pit lane as the marshals recovered Paatz’s damaged car. 

When the safety car period ended at the end of lap 14, Pin got a good launch to maintain the lead over Lloyd, but multiple collisions at the back of the field triggered another safety car deployment.

The sequence of events began when Rafaela Ferreira, while battling for sixth with Larsen, locked up at Turn 8 and had to take the escape road. She rejoined at speed at Turn 9 and oversteered into Chong on exit, resulting in a collision. 

Behind Ferreira’s slowing car, Joanne Ciconte tapped Courtney Crone into a spin at the hairpin. Crone continued and finished 13th on track, while Ciconte pitted and retired from the race, joining Ferreira and Chong on the sidelines. 

Pin crossed the line to win just after the safety car was withdrawn, with Lloyd taking second as Felbermayr rounded out the top three – initially. A post-race investigation found that Felbermayr’s car was underweight, and she was disqualified from the race. Nina Gademan therefore inherited third, taking her first podium in the series despite starting 13th.

Lia Block, promoted to fourth after starting sixth, may have held position after being passed by Gademan on lap three, but she told Feeder Series that ‘there was never a dull lap’ in the 17-lap contest. 

Pin’s 25-point haul also gave her the lead of the championship after Weug finished 10 laps down thanks to persistent engine issues. Ferreira received a five-place grid penalty for her collision with Chong, while Palmowski was given a 10-second time penalty for her collision with Chambers, dropping her from seventh to 12th. 

Race 2

Chong, who qualified eighth on Friday, started from reverse-grid pole and got a good launch, but Gademan quickly put her under pressure as Lloyd, who started fifth, jumped to third at the start.

Gademan overtook Chong at Turn 6, Lloyd followed at Turn 7, and nine more cars got by after Chong ran deep at Turns 9 and 10. Felbermayr then got a stronger exit from Turn 14 to take second from Lloyd. 

On lap five, Chambers, running fourth, spun at Turn 1 while on Pin’s outside and dropped to 14th. That left the Frenchwoman unchallenged for fourth and free to hunt down Lloyd, but as she used the slipstream to make a passing attempt at Turn 13 on lap seven, she locked up, missed the chicane and had to give the place back. 

After relinquishing the position, Pin faced pressure from Larsen, who made contact with Pin’s right-rear while looking for a passing opportunity at the hairpin on lap nine. Neither car sustained serious damage, but Larsen was shown the black-and-white flag for causing a collision. 

Pin attempted another overtake on Lloyd at the final chicane on lap 12 and once again cut the corner. This time, after Pin gave the position, Larsen succeeded in passing her the next time by at the chicane before the safety car was brought out. 

As they battled, home driver Nicole Havrda hit teammate Aiva Anagnostiadis entering Turn 10 and spun into retirement, bringing out the safety car on lap 14. The safety car period ended on lap 16, with one racing lap left. 

Race leader Gademan had been shown the black and white flags for track limits earlier in the race, and engineer Eimear O’Connor urged ‘clean driving until the end’. The Prema driver did so, but at the expense of victory.

On the last lap, Felbermayr made a bold move down the inside at Turn 9 to take the lead. As she began to cruise towards victory, Lloyd followed with an overtake down the inside on Gademan at Turn 10. 

“I was leading most of the race, pretty strong start,” Gademan told Feeder Series. “Unfortunately, the late safety car came out and it was really chaotic on the last lap. I think a lot of people switched places.” 

Felbermayr cut the chicane on the final lap but did not lose positions or receive a penalty for track limits. Behind the podium finishers, Pin finished fourth, while Weug finished ninth – failing to score again – after surviving a mid-race collision entering Turn 13 with fellow Ferrari junior Aurelia Nobels.

Race 3

Polesitter Chambers maintained the lead of race three at the start as Lloyd, who started fourth, overtook Pin at the start and tried to make a move on Palmowski for second. But between Turns 2 and 3, Lloyd and Palmowski made contact, with Palmowski spinning on track after being tapped by Pin. The Mercedes junior sustained no significant damage but lost two places to Tina Hausmann and Gademan.

Another collision at the back of the field triggered the first of three safety car periods. Paatz spun on track exiting Turn 7 and was collected with Anagnostiadis, taking both of them out of the race. 

The safety car period ended at the end of lap seven, with Chambers maintaining the lead at the restart. Felbermayr passed Chong at Turn 6 and now chased Gademan for fifth and briefly overtook her heading into Turn 10, but as Gademan tried to make a move down the inside to retake the place, she spun Felbermayr, dropping her to 16th. Gademan was given a 10-second penalty.  

Pin also pursued Hausmann in hopes of retaking third, making the move stick with an overtake at the first corner on lap nine. Lloyd also hunted Chambers for first, but the American defended her position. 

The second safety car period was triggered after Block braked too late and hit the rear of Ferreira’s car at Turn 8 as the two fought for ninth. Nobels behind was also caught up in the incident, hitting Ferreira’s car after she spun on track. Block parked up on the grass, while Nobels headed to the pits with front wing damage and likewise retired from the race. 

The safety car period ended at the end of lap 12, and Chambers once again kept the lead of the race. Weug, who had started the race 15th, had made her way up to seventh by then and eyed Larsen and Chong ahead. As Weug made a move on Larsen for sixth at Turn 3, the two made contact, with Larsen sliding wide and dropping to ninth. 

The final safety car period of the race came out after Felbermayr and Courtney Crone made contact at Turn 8, which sent Crone into the barriers. She was unable to get going again, and the race ended a lap early behind the safety car while her ART Grand Prix car was retrieved. 

Chambers therefore took her first win of the season ahead of Lloyd, who finished in second for the third time in a row and vaulted to fourth in the drivers’ standings. Pin finished third with her second podium of the weekend.

Pin now leads the standings with 109 points, 20 points ahead of second-placed Chambers. Weug rounds out the top three with 72 points. Pin’s Prema team also jumped to first in the standings with 178 points, taking the lead from Campos with 151. MP rounds out the top three of the teams’ championship with 122 points.

“The weekend was very positive overall because we took the win [and] we had a second podium today,” Pin told Feeder Series after the third race. “Especially the thing that is positive is that we scored quite good points for the championship and we are now leading the championship, so it feels great.

“It was the target of the weekend and we were the ones that never did a mistake and always stayed on track and scored the maximum of points, so I’m happy that we’re very good in terms of consistency and also in terms of speed – that we have the pace to win races.” 

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Chloe Chambers, 1:38.125	Alisha Palmowski, +0.305s	Doriane Pin, +0.478s
Race 1 (17 laps)	Doriane Pin, 33:02.382	Ella Lloyd, +0.270s	Nina Gademan, +1.629s
Race 2 (17 laps)	Emma Felbermayr, 29:48.046	Ella Lloyd, +0.205s	Nina Gademan, +0.293s
Race 3 (16 laps)	Chloe Chambers, 32:49.949s	Ella Lloyd, +0.277s	Doriane Pin, +0.715s

Standings	Drivers	Teams
P1	Doriane Pin, 109	Prema Racing, 178
P2	Chloe Chambers, 89	Campos Racing, 151
P3	Maya Weug, 72	MP Motorsport, 122
P4	Ella Lloyd, 67	Rodin Motorsport, 99
P5	Alisha Palmowski, 53	ART Grand Prix, 20
P6	Alba Larsen, 46	Hitech, 6
P7	Tina Hausmann, 36
P8	Nina Gademan, 33
P9	Emma Felbermayr, 21
P10	Lia Block, 15

Additional reporting by Calla Kra-Caskey

Read the previous round’s report here.

Header photo credit: Andy Hone / LAT Images