RACE 2: Weug converts pole into commanding lights-to-flag victory in Zandvoort

Maya Weug executed a dominant drive in Zandvoort to claim her second win of the season, leading every lap to crucially close the gap to her title rival Doriane Pin. The Ferrari driver made the most of starting on pole position to secure her second podium of the weekend, with the second-biggest winning margin in F1 ACADEMY history of 7.3s.

Ella Lloyd was running in second but a five-second time penalty for a false start demoted her to fourth, promoting Alisha Palmowski up one place and Pin on to the podium.

A blow was delivered to Red Bull Ford driver Chloe Chambers’ title hopes as she got stuck on the grid on the formation lap and was taken back to the pits with a technical problem, and was ultimately unable to partake.

This led to Race 1 podium finisher Lia Block mistakenly pulling into Chambers’ grid slot before reversing back into her own P6 space, earning her a 10-second time penalty for a false start.

But at the front of the pack, polesitter Weug made a strong start to hold onto the race lead while McLaren’s Lloyd charged past Palmowski to claim P2 on the opening lap. She immediately launched a challenge for P1 but dropped back to fend off the Red Bull Racing driver, allowing Weug to extend the gap over her rivals.

Further down the order, Kick Sauber’s Emma Felbermayr took too much speed into Turn 10 and ended up facing the wrong way, dropping her from P10 to the bottom of the field. There was also a near-miss for Wild Card Esmee Kosterman and Block – the TeamViewer driver went wide over track limits, and Block’s attempt to take advantage was unsuccessful.

Weug had established a substantial gap of five seconds to Lloyd by Lap 11, but the battle for P2 was still heating up as Palmowski remained less than a second behind the Welsh racer, with Pin not too far behind. Although Lloyd was defending well, there was a twist as it was revealed she had made a false start at lights out and was handed a five-second time penalty.

This allowed Weug to breeze home to victory, taking the chequered flag 7.3s ahead of Palmowski — who scored her first podium on Grand Prix Sunday. This was the second-largest winning margin since Marta García won the first F1 ACADEMY race at the Red Bull Ring by over eight seconds in 2023.

Lloyd was demoted to fourth following her penalty, whilst another close battle was between Race 1 victor Nina Gademan and her PREMA Racing teammate Tina Hausmann played out. Their fight continued until they crossed the finish line, with the Aston Martin-backed racer maintaining fifth place ahead of the Alpine driver.

It was a superb day for Kosterman, who took P7 to become the first Wild Card of the season to score points. Block’s penalty dropped her all the way down from P8 to outside of the points in P12. Racing Bulls’ Rafaela Ferreira improved from 11th to eighth position, and Alba Larsen and Chloe Chong rounded out the points scorers after a mistake from Chong allowed the Tommy Hilfiger driver through on the final lap.

WHAT’S NEXT?

F1 ACADEMY will head to Singapore from October 3-5 for the penultimate round of the 2025 campaign.