Gademan reflects on Race 1 victory as she signals intentions for Sunday in Shanghai

Nina Gademan was buoyed after she pulled off an almost perfect Race 1 victory in Shanghai, leaving her optimistic that she can capitalise on her performance in the all-important Race 2.

As far as races go, they don’t get much more straightforward than this. Starting from reverse grid pole for the second year in a row, Gademan led every lap with a consistent 1 second buffer over second-place Natalia Granada.

Even a Safety Car restart with four laps to go could shake her composure, allowing Gademan to avenge last year’s disappointment when she retired late on from the lead. Admitting that her only blip was a poor getaway off the line, the Alpine driver was fortunate that Granada was experiencing the start for the first time and that Lisa Billard suffered a worse start from third.

Reflecting on her dominant performance, she said: “It was a very easy race. I learned a lot from last year on how to manage a race from P1. I actually had a really bad start, which I normally don't have. I instantly looked in my mirror and I was like ‘wait everyone else also had a bad start, so I'm safe’.

“From then on, I could push a lot in the beginning, it was good. I think I over-pushed a bit at the start. Then the tyres started to drop, so good thing the Safety Car came out so I could get them under control again. After the Safety Car was done, I managed to open the gap a lot again.

“Then the last two laps, I was thinking I'm not even going to push anymore. I'm going to play it safe. The degradation here is really high, so I thought let’s play it safe. Let’s not over-push, let’s not spin or something and just finish.

“I tried to see what was going on behind me, but at some point they were too far away because of the battling. I don’t know what happened. It was just me and Natalia chilling at some point and Rafaela for a bit, but that was it.”

By winning the first race of the year, it means Gademan is leading the Standings for the first time in her F1 ACADEMY career. While it is very early days, it’s a position the 22-year-old is relishing.

READ MORE: RACE 1: Gademan secures flawless lights-to-flag Shanghai victory

Facing a P8 start for Race 2, Gademan wishes her Qualifying session had panned out differently as she tries to salvage a top-five finish on Sunday.

“I might actually just screenshot that and hang it on the wall as a motivation (to say) you need to be there,” she said. “Tomorrow I’m starting P8, obviously not where we wanted but also not where we should be.

“We looked back later and that lap should have been a P3 or P4 at least. We know we have the pace, we showed it today. I know I’ve got really good racecraft. For tomorrow, I think the most important thing is to get into the top five, just score some points and do a bit of damage reduction really on that.”