Doriane Pin left F1 Academy’s Zandvoort round with the same 20-point lead she had to start the weekend – but this time leading from Maya Weug rather than Chloe Chambers. Feeder Series reviews a weekend containing a double Dutch victory and plenty of action. 

By Calla Kra-Caskey

F1 Academy’s fifth round in the Netherlands promised rain but only delivered it during a dry-wet second practice session and a damp qualifying. 

Weug bounced back from her technical misfortunes in Montreál with pole position, a win and an additional podium. Chambers, on the other hand, seemed to inherit her bad luck and could not start the second race. Nina Gademan delighted her home crowd with her first single-seater victory, while Lia Block took a first podium of her own. 

Practice and qualifying

Alisha Palmowski led the first practice session with a 1:38.196, just 0.005s faster than MP’s Weug. Palmowski’s Campos teammate Chambers was third with a 1:38.439. 

Chambers was fastest in the second practice session, which started in the dry, by setting a time of 1:36.873 before the rain started falling. Weug was second fastest, 0.150s behind, while Prema’s Pin rounded out the top three, 0.418s off Chambers. 

Gademan was declared unfit to drive between the first and second practice sessions, but after additional checks, she was allowed to participate in qualifying. 

Qualifying started with a drying track after the morning’s rain, and the whole field started on wet tyres. There was an early red flag after Aiva Anagnostiadis was beached in the gravel because of contact with Hitech teammate Nicole Havrda, who received a three-place grid penalty for both races for causing the incident.

Pin set the fastest lap on wets, a 1:47.784, ahead of Weug and Gademan. However, when the drivers transitioned to slicks, Weug came out on top. 

As the last driver in the top 10 to cross the line, she took a dramatic pole position with a time of 1:38.834, narrowly beating out Palmowski’s time of 1:38.873. Rodin’s Ella Lloyd came third, 0.129s shy of Weug.

It was a close qualifying session all around, with the drivers on the first three rows – rounded out by Chambers, Pin and Block – all setting a time within three tenths of pole. 

Race 1

Gademan started from reverse-grid pole next to her Prema teammate Tina Hausmann. Wild card Esmee Kosterman was originally meant to start from ninth, but she was called into the pit lane during the formation lap with a tyre pressure issue and had to start from there. 

At the start, Gademan held her lead while Block went around the outside of Hausmann in Turn 1 to take second. Behind them, Chambers attempted the same move on Pin for fourth, but she was pushed wide on exit and fell back to eighth. 

On the second lap, Hausmann hit the barrier at Turn 8, retiring from third and causing a safety car. 

Shortly after the safety car restart on lap five, Pin went wide at Turn 3, allowing Lloyd by into third. Pin lost another position on lap seven as Weug passed her at Turn 5. On lap nine, she was passed on the inside through Turns 7 and 8 by Chambers, who had previously made it past Palmowski for sixth. 

Weug, meanwhile, was charging forward. At the beginning of lap nine she went up the inside on Lloyd into Turn 1. The pair went side by side through the next corners before Weug pulled ahead into Turn 3. Having made it into the podium positions, she then went about chasing Block for second. She caught the ART driver and set the fastest lap of the race at 1:36.867 on lap 12 but could not pass her in the closing laps. 

Gademan’s controlled victory marked her first in the series after she retired from the lead in the first race of the season because of a mechanical issue. A happy birthday indeed!

Lia Block also took her first podium in the series, while Weug returned to the podium for the first time since Jeddah. 

The points were completed by Lloyd, Chambers, Pin, Palmowski, and Emma Felbermayr, who gained two spots through Kosterman’s pit lane start and Hausmann’s retirement. 

Race 2

The second race began with drama as Chambers was unable to start her car for the formation lap and was pulled into the pit lane by Campos mechanics. In the cooldown room after the race, her teammate Palmowski revealed that the issue was a dead battery drained by Chambers’ onboard camera, an unfortunate dent in Chambers’ championship charge. 

Further drama ensued when Block, set to start behind Chambers in sixth, missed her pit box and drove into Chambers’. She reversed into her own box and was moving forward again as the lights went out, a breach of the start procedure for which she received a 10-second false start penalty. 

Weug held on to her lead at the start as Lloyd passed Palmowski for second, though the Rodin driver was later issued a five-second penalty for a false start of her own. 

In the first half of the race, Chloe Chong, Courtney Crone and Alba Larsen engaged in a battle for the final points position. On lap 10, Larsen went around the outside of Crone in Turn 1 to take 11th. On the 17th and final lap, she made a more dramatic version of the same move on 10th-placed Chong, who then locked up entering the corner. Larsen got the cutback and passed Chong on the inside of Turn 1. 

Weug sailed to an easy victory, crossing the line 6.257 seconds ahead of Lloyd. Her winning margin was extended to 7.333s as Lloyd’s penalty dropped her behind Palmowski and Pin to fourth. Weug also set the fastest lap of the race on lap nine with a 1:37.048.

Hausmann finished fifth, just 0.220s ahead of Gademan, who had been trying in vain to pass the Swiss driver the whole race. Kosterman came seventh, becoming the first wild card driver to score points this season. 

Block initially crossed the line in eighth, but her penalty dropped her to 12th, promoting Rafaela Ferreira, Larsen and Chong to the final points-paying positions. 

An impressive comeback weekend by Weug means she’s second in the championship standings, just 20 points shy of Pin, with two rounds to go. 

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Maya Weug, 1:38.834	Alisha Palmowski, +0.039s	Ella Lloyd, +0.129s
Race 1 (17 laps)	Nina Gademan, 29:00.747	Lia Block, +2.116s	Maya Weug, +2.243s
Race 2 (17 laps)	Maya Weug, 27:43.850	Alisha Palowski, +7.333s	Doriane Pin, +9.946s

Standings	Drivers	Teams
P1	Doriane Pin, 127	Prema Racing, 224
P2	Maya Weug, 107	Campos Racing, 179
P3	Chloe Chambers, 93	MP Motorsport, 159
P4	Ella Lloyd, 84	Rodin Motorsport, 118
P5	Alisha Palmowski, 73	ART Grand Prix, 28
P6	Nina Gademan, 51	Hitech, 12
P7	Alba Larsen, 48
P8	Tina Hausmann, 46
P9	Lia Block, 23
P10	Emma Felbermayr, 22

Header photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool