Ella Loyd took her first win in F1 Academy — and McLaren’s first-ever victory in Jeddah — in yesterday’s reverse grid race. Today, it was time for the second feature race, with Chloe Chambers starting from pole position for the first time in her career in the all-female series.
The fight was on from the start, with the top three drivers in the championship all bunched together at the front. Chambers got off to a strong, while Maya Weug moved into second place by overtaking Doriane Pin.
Yesterday’s winner Ella Loyd struggled at the start, stalling and dropping back from P7 to P13.
The overtaking action went on at the back as well, as Emma Felbermayr spun following contact with Rafaela Ferreira, bringing out a briefly yellow flag. Felbermayr was able to continue, while the incident was noted, and Ferreira later received a 10-second penalty.
On lap 2, Weug attempted to take the lead from Chambers with a beautiful side-by-side battle and briefly took the top spot. However, Chambers quickly reclaimed the lead, while Pin capitalized on the fight and snatched P2 from Weug.
The Ferrari Academy driver retook P2 on lap 4, while Alisha Palmowski remained close behind, patiently waiting for a mistake from one of the top three.
With five laps to go, Chambers received a 5-second penalty for forcing Weug off track for their battle earlier on, meaning the race leader now had to build a gap to secure the win – otherwise, she would drop to P6.
Alba Larson began closing the gap to P4 and Palmowski. Further back, Felbermayr made moves on Aiva Anagnostiadis and Nicole Havrda as she continued her recovery, climbing up to P15.
Chambers was pushing to build a gap to Palmowski in hopes of finishing on the podium despite her penalty. Meanwhile, Weug secured the fastest lap point.
On the final lap, the drivers went full throttle, especially Chambers. The American pushed hard to build a gap to Pin, securing the fastest lap. Although she crossed the finish line in first, she dropped to P2 behind Weug. However, Chambers had built enough of a gap to stay ahead of Pin, finishing with a margin of 0.065 ahead of the French driver.
Loyd drove brilliantly, recovering into the top ten and finishing the race in P9.
With this result, Pin lost her championship lead to Weug by three points, settling for second place. However, with 10 more races in the F1 Academy calendar, nothing is lost for the Mercedes Academy driver.