Carrie Schreiner Wins First Race of the Season at Zandvoort

Carrie Schreiner held off two of the series’ title chasers to win Race 2 in Zandvoort and claim her first win of the season.

It was a fantastic start from pole sitter Amna Al Qubaisi at lights out, with the Emirati racer aiming to seal MP Motorsport’s second win of the weekend as she broke clear from Schreiner and led the pack after Lap 1.

After disappointment yesterday, Marta García was looking to bounce back and quickly navigated those directly ahead of her moving up into P3. Further down the field, Race 1 winner Hamda Al Qubaisi had fallen outside the points, slipping as far back as P11.

On a track that is famously difficult to overtake, drivers were enjoying the space on Turn 1. None more so than ART Grand Prix’s Léna Bühler who overtook Nerea Martí on Lap 2 as she began her ascent up the field.

However, tragedy would soon strike for leader A. Al Qubaisi, who took a trip about the gravel and hit the wall at Turn 8 of Lap 2, bringing out the Safety Car and promoting Schreiner to P1 for the restart. The Emirati racer had been the only driver to have secured points in every race so far this season.

The German driver, looking for her first win in the series, slowed the pack up as the Safety Car came in, before speeding round the banking and creating a gap to nearest challenger García. Just behind, Jessica Edgar pulled off an excellent overtake down the inside of Emely de Heus at Turn 1 to snatch P3 from the Dutch racer.

As Schreiner continued to defend from García out front, Bühler begun to close in on the lead pack and overtook Edgar on Lap 7 to create a three-way scrap for the lead.

With García looking for moves at every corner, Schreiner’s defence was unwavering as she fended off the Spaniard’s attempts to pass. With every move García tried, Bühler was brought closer into the fray and forced the PREMA Racing on the defence.

On the final lap, the entire field was split by just five seconds, but it would be Schreiner who would secure her first and ART Grand Prix’s second win of the season. García crossed the line in second to gain valuable points in her title battle with H. Al Qubaisi, while Bühler finished in P3, her seventh podium of the season.

Race Winner’s Quote – Carrie Schreiner

“Of course I am super happy to win the race, I would have been happy with a podium but to win is even better. I didn’t expect it at all and had a great race where I focused on my strengths to finish in P1.

As It Stands

The win for Schreiner moves her up to P10 in the overall standings while García increases her lead at the front up to 21 points.

MP Motorsport continue to hold a strong lead over PREMA Racing at the top of the Teams’ Standings and the double podium for ART Grand Prix pulls them further into the battle in P3.

What’s Next

Race 3 kicks off at 17:25 and sees H. Al Qubaisi on pole once again as she looks to diminish García’s advantage at the top of the standings.