F1 Academy – Race 2: Emma Felbermayr takes her first victory in Montreal
Emma Felbermayr took her first F1 Academy victory in Race 2 at the Canadian Grand Prix, avenging her disqualification from Race 1 for being underweight. The Austrian driver won an intense final lap ahead of Ella Lloyd and Nina Gademan, after the safety car intervened.
Emma Felbermayr claimed her first victory in the F1 Academy on Saturday during the second race at the Canadian Grand Prix. The Austrian driver from Kick Sauber took her revenge after being disqualified from race 1 for insufficient weight, winning after a spectacular final lap on the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit.
Inverted grid and new beginning
The starting grid inverted the top eight from race 1, placing Chloe Chong in pole position ahead of Nina Gademan. This arrangement allowed Emma Felbermayr to start third, an ideal position to go for the win after her morning disappointment.
Doriane Pin, the new championship leader, started only sixth. Maya Weug, still grappling with her technical problems, started fifteenth after failing to score points in race 1.
Gademan sets his pace
Chong maintained her pole position at the start, but Gademan quickly took control. The Alpine driver launched an attack from the sixth corner, diving inside to snatch the lead. In the same move, Ella Lloyd took advantage of the opening to pass Chong and move into second place.
Felbermayr did not take long to react. As early as the second lap, the Austrian used the slipstream to overtake Lloyd and move into second position behind Gademan. The hierarchy was forming with Gademan in the lead, Felbermayr second, and Lloyd third.
Meanwhile, Chong quickly fell back. The Brit lost several places in a few laps and ultimately finished thirteenth, missing the opportunity to score her first points since the pole.
Pine and Chambers in trouble
Further back in the pack, the championship favorites experienced mixed fortunes. Chloe Chambers endured a new ordeal on the fifth lap. Attempting to overtake Pin for fourth place, the American driver found herself on the outside at the first corner. Under pressure from the Mercedes, she lost control and spun onto the grass, relegating her to fourteenth position.
Pin herself experienced tactical difficulties. Overtaking Lloyd at the final chicane of the eighth lap, the Frenchwoman cut the trajectory and had to give back the position on her team’s orders on the following lap. The same situation occurred on the twelfth lap, with Pin giving back the position again after cutting at turn 14.
These mistakes were costly for the Mercedes driver, who lost ground to Alba Larsen. Indeed, the Danish driver took advantage of them to seize fourth place from the French driver on the fourteenth lap, just before the safety car was deployed.
The clash that reignites everything
The race turned at the fourteenth lap with the accident between Hitech teammates Nicole Havrda and Aiva Anagnostiadis. Havrda hit the rear of her teammate in the braking zone of the hairpin, triggering the deployment of the safety car.
At that moment, Gademan was leading ahead of Felbermayr, who had reduced the gap to eight tenths. Lloyd was in third place, followed by Larsen and Pin. The intervention neutralized all the gaps for a decisive final lap.
A suspenseful ending
Gademan reignited hostilities quite early in the final lap, trying to maintain his lead. But Felbermayr was right on his heels and only needed one opportunity. The Austrian dived inside at the eighth corner, taking the lead in the race.
In the same move, Lloyd took advantage of Gademan’s slowdown to slip into second place at the hairpin. The Alpine driver, who had dominated fifteen of the sixteen laps, found herself relegated to third place in the final meters.
Felbermayr perfectly managed the end of the race despite a bumpy ride over the curbs in the final corner. She crossed the line in first position for her first victory in the F1 Academy, ahead of Lloyd and Gademan.
Pin saved his fourth place by overtaking Larsen in the last lap, limiting the damage for the championship. Palmowski, Tina Hausmann, and Lia Block completed the paying positions.
This victory allows Felbermayr to erase the disappointment of his morning disqualification and to score his first points of the season. Pin retains the lead of the championship with 93 points, ahead of Weug (64 points) and Chambers (62 points).
