RACE 1: Pin charges her way through to clinch victory in Miami

Doriane Pin put all her experience into practice, turning her P6 start into victory in Race 1 on the Miami streets. The Mercedes driver capitalised on a chaotic opening lap and kept Alisha Palmowski at bay to seal her second win of the season.

Palmowski also made her way through the pack to seal second, with teammate Chloe Chambers following through to deliver a double podium for Campos Racing.

Lining up on reverse grid pole once again, Emma Felbermayr nailed her getaway as chaos unfolded behind her. A lock-up from Rafaela Ferreira left her vulnerable as fifth-placed Ella Lloyd tried to squeeze her way past Lia Block. Misjudging her braking point into Turn 1, the McLaren driver hit Ferreira’s rear, breaking her own front wing and forcing the #20 car into an early retirement.

Benefitting from the drama, Pin slipped her way into second. Trying to wrestle the lead away from Felbermayr, her efforts were halted by the appearance of the Safety Car on the opening lap to pick up the stricken McLaren car.

The Safety Car was back in on Lap 3, and Felbermayr held firm on the restart. But it wouldn’t be long for Pin to chance a move, looking down the inside of the Kick Sauber and emerging out in front down the main straight.

However, the fight wasn’t over as Felbermayr caught Pin off-guard, diving down past the Mercedes driver in Turn 1 and leaving her to fend off Aurelia Nobels.

Her lead would disappear a lap later, locking up into the same corner and going wide over the kerb, damaging her upper front nose. Opening the door for Pin, a train of cars also followed through, dropping her down to sixth.

Up ahead, Pin built a 1.2s gap whilst Nobels and Palmowski went side-by-side, but the Red Bull Racing driver managed to swoop past for second.

The Safety Car was back out on Lap 8 after Joanne Ciconte’s three-wide battle with Chloe Chong and Nicole Havrda brought her race to an early end. Tagged from behind by Chong at Turn 11, both she and the Charlotte Tilbury driver had to retire, whilst Felbermayr received a black and orange flag, forcing her to box for repairs.

Pin controlled the pace on the restart two laps later, pulling away from Palmowski. Chambers moved on to the podium with a tactical move on Nobels, taking the outside line into Turn 11 which then became the inside for Turn 12.

The PUMA driver then found herself fighting fellow Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy member Weug. Selling Nobels the dummy, Weug got the switchback at the last second to get through to fourth.

Block then tried to make her own way past her ART Grand Prix teammate on the penultimate lap, but the Williams driver took to the run-off as she overtook the Brazilian for P5. After giving the place back, Block made another move to regain fifth.

Despite Palmowski’s pressure, nobody could deny Pin the win and the fastest lap as she took the chequered flag four tenths ahead of the Briton. Chambers completed the top-three ahead of Standings leader Maya Weug.

Nina Gademan was promoted to fifth after Block was handed a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage in an earlier battle with Tina Hausmann, which demoted her from P5 to P10. Nobels secured her first points of the year in sixth ahead of Tina Hausmann and Ferreira, who completed the points-scoring finishers in P8.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Chambers will be looking to deliver a win on home soil when she starts on pole for Race 2, which gets underway at 13:05 local time (UTC -4).