F1 Academy: Weug wins in Saudi Arabia

The Dutch girl took her first win of the season at the Jeddah Corniche circuit, as well as a runner-up spot to lead the championship.

Maya Weug was the star of the second round of the F1 Academy, held in Jeddah on the same card as the Formula 1 World Championship. The Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy student won today’s main racing having finished second in yesterday’s, run with a reversed grid. She now has 33 points which puts her squarely in the lead of the series, with one win and three podium finishes from the first four races. She has a 7 point lead over second placed Doriane Pin and 12 over third placed Chloe Chambers. After an unlucky weekend in Shanghai, Aurelia Nobels finished tenth in Race 1 and 11th in Race 2 in Saudi Arabia. As she was knocked out of both races in China through no fault of her own, these last two races were a first opportunity for Nobels to work on race pace, which will come in handy for the remainder of the season. 

Pleased. “I’m really happy with how this weekend went,” commented Maya. “For Race 2, I knew the first few laps would be crucial and my aim was to overtake Doriane and Chloe, which I succeeded in doing. Today, we had strong pace after doing a good job along with my team, MP Motorsport during the test here and that paid off this weekend. There’s still a long way to go this season but it’s great to see we are on the right path and these results are a great boost for the team.”

Race-1. Having qualified third fastest, Weug started Race 1 from sixth, because the first eight places on the grid are reversed. Maya’s opening lap was very aggressive as she moved up to fourth, passing Tina Hausmann and Alba Felbermayr. Then after a long Safety Car period, Maya did battle with Alisha Palmowski whom she got the better of at turn 27 on the penultimate lap. Weug then had a last ditch attempt to pass the leader, Ella Lloyd, but the chequered flag came too soon. Aurelia saw the chequered flag for the first time this season, in tenth place, after starting twelfth. 

Race-2. Weug drove brilliantly in the main race of the weekend, for which full points are awarded. Starting third, she passed Pin going into the first corner and then took one more lap to catch the leader, Chambers. On lap 3, a spectacular move from the Dutch girl at turn 1 saw her pass Chambers, who gave chase and pushed Weug off the track on the outside of Turn 6, dropping Maya two places. The Scuderia Ferrari HP driver fought back immediately, again passing Pin at turn 1 and once more closing on Chambers. With five laps to go, Chambers was given a 5 second penalty for her move on Weug and as Maya was within that time distance when she crossed the line in second place, she took her first win of the season, her second in the F1 Academy series.