With four rounds completed and three left to go in the 2024 F1 Academy season, the grid takes to Singapore for one of the most physically demanding race weekends on the calendar.

With F1 Academy offering Wild Card Entries for each weekend, this particular Wild Card was handed to Ella Llloyd, with the current British F4 driver stepping onto the grid at one of the most challenging venues for any driver, let alone a rookie.

Qualifying:

With the sun lowering and the track illuminated by the floodlights, 30 minutes of qualifying began for the F1 Academy grid.

Nerea Marti set the initial fastest time of the session with a 2:06.808, before Abbi Pulling snatched the top spot with her first flying lap.

The British driver’s pace continued to build, with her second flying lap clocking in at 2:04.662,extending her lead to almost five tenths over second place. PREMA Racing teammates Maya Weug and Doriane Pin both set faster flying laps, before Pulling responded once again with a time 2:04.335 to go top of timings by 0.040s.

Weug responded with a 2:04.179, before an even quicker Pin topped the leaderboard by over two tenths. Pulling was now down to third place, some four tenths off the Mercedes’ Junior driver’s time, with Hamda Al Qubaisi moving into fourth.

With drivers beginning to leave the track and enter the pitlane, Amna Al Qubaisi had a nerve-wracking moment as the RB sponsored MP Motorsport car span over the run-off in Sector 1.

With the track conditions improving as more rubber was layered onto the track, the second set of tyres proved to have more grip, drivers across the board were setting personal bests within the final five minutes.

Pulling once again set the fastest lap time with a 2:03.631, whilst Weug was now her nearest rival in second some two tenths off the top time.

Pulling failed to improve any further on her final attempt, however, neither could the rest of the grid as Weug and Pin had to settle for second and third place, some 0.238s and 0.265s back respectively.

With a storming last-lap effort from Lia Block, the Williams-backed driver saw herself finishing qualifying in fourth – her best result of the season so far – followed by Hamda Al Qubaisi, Chloe Chambers and Marti.

Wild Card Entrant Ella Lloyd overcame limited running in the Practice session to pull together an impressive Qualifying performance, being set to line up eighth for her first F1 Academy race ahead of Bianca Bustamante and Carrie Schreiner.

In regards to Race 2, the grid is determined by the drivers’ second fastest laps, with Pulling set to start from Pole with Pin for company on the front row. Weug is set to start from third place ahead of Block, Marti and Hamda Al Qubaisi. Carrie Schreiner starts from seventh ahead of Lloyd, Chambers and Bustamante.

Race 1:

A race with no mistakes around the Marina Bay Street Circuit saw Abbi Pulling add a sixth victory to her 2024 F1 Academy season tally.

With the formation lap completed and all drivers lining up on the grid for the race start, Bianca Bustamante raised her hands out of the cockpit causing an aborted start, resulting in the drivers having an additional formation lap, reducing the race distance down to 11 laps.

As stated by the regulations, the McLaren sponsored driver should have pulled into the pitlane to start the race instead of P9, as a result of causing the aborted start. However, Bustamante continued to line back up on the grid, with Race Control noting a race start infringement. She was ultimately handed a 10-second stop-and-go penalty as punishment.

Following the second formation lap, the green flag finally waved at the rear of the grid and with five lights out, Race 1 for the F1 Academy finally got underway.

Abbi Pulling got a great launch off of the line from pole position, with the top four unchanged as Weug, Pin and Block all held position behind.

Aurelia Nobels struggled at the start of the lap, running wide and off the track going into Turn 1, whilst Hamda al Qubaisi also had a tricky start as she dropped down the order from fifth place after also going wide over the Turn 1 run-off.

Ella LLoyd took full advantage of the mistakes made further up the pack, with the Wild Card Entry driver making a move on Nerea Marti and the Red Bull Racing supported driver, as she began to put pressure on Chloe Chambers up ahead in fifth.

Bustamante was quick to be called in pits to serve her penalty, moving her to the back of the grid in P16 when she rejoined the track.

PUMA-backed Nobels was noted by Race Control for her Turn 1 incident in which she left the track and gained an advantage. Replays showed she failed to go around the bollard on the outside of Turn 2 – which is required if the driver has left the track at Turn 1 – when re-joining the track. However, the Brazilian driver was given no further action and remained in P14.

Over the next four laps, Pulling’s pace in the Alpine-liveried Rodin Motorsport allowed her to increase the gap between herself and Weug, whilst simultaneously setting four consecutive fastest laps to break the 1-second window by the conclusion of Lap 4.

Further down the order, Lloyd was on the defensive from Hamda Al Qubaisi in the battle for sixth place.

A Yellow flag was shown in Sector 1 as a result of Emely de Heus. Whilst trying to make a move down the inside of Nobels going into Turn 1, the Red Bull For sponsored driver lost control of her car, spinning and then rejoining the race in P15, with only Bustamante behind her.

With five laps to go, Pulling set yet another fastest lap of the race, whilst Hamda Al Qubaisi attempted a move down the inside of Lloyd at Turn 7, however had to drop off the attack and was left vulnerable to Marti behind.

Ella Llloyd and Doriane Pin were both noted by Race Control for potentially having a false start at the beginning of the race, with this proving significant for Mercedes-backed Pin in regards to the battle for the Championship – if she was to receive a penalty.

De Heus was also noted by Race Control for failing to follow the Race Director’s instructions in regards to using the correct escape road when rejoining the circuit after her respective spin, with this incident being investigated post-race.

Pin did receive a five-second penalty after being deemed by Race Control to have completed a false start. Block was the closest rival in P4, lapping only 3.9 seconds behind Pin, meaning the American driver could inherit the podium at the end of the race due to the penalty if stayed within five seconds. However, the Mercedes Junior driver seemed determined to increase her advantage as the pace increased into the closing stages of the race.

Out at the front of the grid, Pulling took the chequered flag and her sixth victory of the season by 2.056s clear of Maya Weug in second place. Pin narrowly took third place, setting the fastest lap of the race to finish ahead of Block in P4 by only two-tenths. 

Chambers rounded out the top-five ahead of Hamda Al Qubaisi. Nerea Marti and Carrie Schreiner took seventh and eighth place to ensure all three Campos Racing cars finished within the points. With Lloyd’s five-second time penalty being applied to the final race time, the British driver saw her dropped from sixth to ninth, with Aston Martin’s Tina Hausmann rounding out the top-ten.

Race 2:

Compared to Race 1, which saw an aborted start and two formation laps, Race 2 got away cleanly with lights out on the grid and pole-sitter Abbi Pulling having a strong start to keep the lead into Turn 1. 

Behind, Pin and Weug immediately began to battle, with the Dutch driver looking to make a move around the outside of Pin going into Turn 1. After failing to make the move stick, the pair raced wheel-to-wheel through the next few corners, before Weug got the better of the Mercedes Junior driver at Turn 5 to take second place.

Lia Block attempted to capitalise on the battle between Weug and Pin, however, couldn’t find a gap past the French driver to take third place. Further down the order, Wild Card Entrant Ella Lloyd was another driver to make moves on the opening, initially beating Carrie Schreiner off the line to take seventh before beginning to place pressure on Red Bull Racing’s Hamda Al Qubaisi.

By Lap 3, Pulling had extended the gap for the lead of the race over Weug to over a second, however, that lead was soon gone one lap later. This was due to the race being neutralised as a result of the Safety Car being deployed as a result of Bianca Bustamante running too wide over the kerb at Turn 7 before spinning and narrowly missing making contact with the wall.

The McLaren-backed driver was able to rejoin the race, albeit now at the back of the grid, with the Safety Car soon being called back in and racing resumed.

Heading into Lap 5, Pulling gambled with an early restart and managed to pull a gap over Weug through Turns 17, 18 and 19.

With the Green Flag conditions now resumed, Block made every effort to stay ahead of Nerea Marti, going over the top of the kerbs to keep hold of fourth place. At the other end of the grid, there was contact between Aston Martin sponsored Tina Hausmann and Bustamante, with the McLaren driver going across the run-off, and Hausmann being awarded a 10-second time penalty for the incident after being deemed by the Stewards as being at fault for the collision.

Repeating her Race 1 performance, Abbi Pulling took consecutive fastest laps to increase her lead to 1.4s over Weug, with Pin in third place had now closed to be within half a second of the Ferrari driver.

Lap 6 saw Chambers beginning to lose time as she struggled to make a move on her Campos Racing teammate Schreiner. 

With the tyres beginning to fall away as the track continue to heat under the weather conditions, the Haas-backed driver made a move on Lap 10. Chambers made a move down the inside of the Kick Sauber driver to take P8 through Turn 8, after being the more confident driver on the brakes.

The chequered flag soon came for Abbi Pulling as she continued to extend her advantage out on the front, taking her second victory of the weekend, crossing the line 3.2s ahead of Weug who claimed second place. Pin’s attempts to catch her fellow PREMA Racing driver in the later stages of the race fell away as she lost over a second going into the final two laps of the track and she had to settle for third place.

Block took her second consecutive fourth-placed finish ahead of Marti and Hamda Al Qubaisi. Lloyd claimed another points-scoring appearance on her debut F1 Academy weekend, finishing seventh. Chambers crossed the line in eighth ahead of Schreiner and Red Bull Ford’s Emely De Heus who rounded out the top-ten and claimed the final point.