F1 Academy Weekend Report – Singapore: Weug closes gap to Pin, Block secures maiden victory
- Meghana Sree
- Oct 6
- 11 min read
F1 Academy's penultimate round saw Maya Weug bring the gap to just nine points between herself and championship leader Doriane Pin, while Chloe Chambers is mathematically out of contention for the title.
Another dramatic F1 Academy outing, the penultimate one of this season, was dominated by Maya Weug who sprinted to pole on Saturday, clawed through the field in the reverse-grid race to P2, then managed a last-lap victory against Doriane Pin on Sunday despite losing the lead at the start.
With only nine points between the title rivals and Chloe Chambers out of contention, the fight is set to go down to the wire in Las Vegas.
The Singapore weekend was packed with everything from an emotional maiden win for Lia Block to rookie star Ella Lloyd's continued rise through the ranks.
Here's everything you need to know from F1 Academy's second time out in Singapore.
Top 5 Stories
Weug cuts gap to Pin, nine points separate the title rivals
With a podium in Race 1 and a last-lap victory in the main event, Weug has now sliced her deficit to Pin in the championship to just nine points – with everything to play for in Las Vegas.
Taking back-to-back Race 2 wins, the last one being her home round in Zandvoort, Weug carried over the momentum to this weekend too and finally ended her streak of three P2s in Singapore with victory on Sunday.
For Pin, the championship advantage is crucial but Las Vegas will be the true test of her mettle with Weug putting in aggressive performances to carry the fight to the final round.
Chambers out of the title fight
Managing a podium in the reverse-grid race but dropping out of the points after a strategy miscall in Race 2, Chambers is now mathematically out of the title fight as she slips down to fourth in the standings, passed by rookie Lloyd.
A wet second race saw many drivers retreat to the pits to kick off the slicks, but with under five laps to go and no way to recover the time lost in the pits effectively, those who had opted to pit, including Chambers, could not use the advantage of the wet tyres against those who had stayed out.
Chamber’s title fight thus comes to an end, while one last F1 Academy round awaits her in Las Vegas in her final year of the series.
Block secures much-awaited maiden win
Block took a long overdue maiden win in F1 Academy in Race 1, holding off a charging Weug in the latter stages and effortlessly nailing the two Safety Car restarts that the race saw.
Starting from reverse-grid pole, Block faced stiff competition at the start from fellow ART Grand Prix driver Aurelia Nobels, but kept her elbows out to defend the lead throughout the race.
The win follows her maiden podium achievement back in Zandvoort, and now in her final year of F1 Academy, the American driver will no doubt be relieved to have crossed off the thus far elusive P1 as well.
Billard has a standout weekend, but nothing to show for it
This round’s Wild Card Driver, Lisa Billard, had an outstanding qualifying session – consistently placed in the top ten throughout the session, then securing an impressive fifth for the main race.
Yet in both Races 1 and 2, the French driver was unable to convert the highest starting position for a Wild Card entry to points – after an engine failure in the first race and a rather anonymous second race where she dropped down to 16th in the challenging wet weather.
The final round awaits us in Las Vegas
A thrilling showdown for the 2025 F1 Academy season is right around the corner. The grid will visit Las Vegas for the first time in the series’ history to crown the 2025 champions.
The weekend is also set to feature a collaboration with popular media franchise Hello Kitty, with bespoke merchandise, fan activation zones, and grandstand packages planned throughout the weekend.
The Weekend as it Happened
Qualifying – Weug takes pole under the lights
Weug bested her rivals by stealing pole in the final moments of qualifying from Chambers, while Pin’s efforts could only produce second place behind her title rival.
As the clock started, cars poured out of the pits to take on warm up laps, and five minutes in, the first to set a benchmark time was Block with a 2:10.474.
But action was quickly stalled as Alisha Palmowski hit the wall at Turn 5, bringing out a red flag – luckily for Lloyd and Billard, right after they had finished their push laps that took them to first and second on the board respectively.
When the session eventually resumed with 22 minutes left on the clock, Pin set off on a rapid lap with three purple sectors, setting the first representative lap time with a 2:03.885.
As the track rubbered in, Chambers, Weug, Billard, and Nina Gademan all had substantial improvements, Billard’s run especially impressive given her first time in an F1 Academy qualifying session.
Meanwhile, Alba Larsen’s lap was deleted for track limits, as she sunk down to 17th, joining Joanne Ciconte as the drivers without times on the board.
At the opposite end of the field, Chambers had pipped Pin’s time by a tenth, followed by Billard in third with an impressively clean pace around the bumpy Singapore layout.
With less than 15 minutes to go, drivers pulled back into the pits for fresher rubber. Track action flared up once more with the drivers getting their out laps down, after which the top three in the championship immediately set off on push laps.
While Pin and Chambers couldn’t improve from second and first respectively, Weug was able to snatch Pin’s position, leaping up from fifth.
With just five minutes to go, Larsen’s lap time was deleted once again. Meanwhile, Weug and Chambers were pumping in another lap, with the Ferrari driver going on a blazing run to steal provisional pole from Chambers.
The top five was occupied by Weug, Chambers, Pin, Lloyd and Billard – with Block taking provisional reverse-grid pole down in eighth.
For Pin, the fight wasn’t over yet, as she set off on another lap but was compromised by traffic, hindering her efforts to steal pole from her title rival. Setting off on another lap by crossing the line just before the flag was out, Pin gave it everything to top Weug’s time but could only muster a front-row start, demoting Chambers to third and trailing Weug by four-hundredths of a second.
For Weug, it was back-to-back pole positions, while Block secured reverse-grid pole.
Race 1 – Block secures a dominant maiden F1 Academy victory from Weug
After a prolonged delay to the start, the first race of the weekend got underway with Block starting from reverse-grid pole, with Aurelia Nobels joining her on the front row.
Nobels had the better start, rapidly challenging Block for the lead but the two ART Grand Prix teammates ran wide through the first corner, while further behind, Weug had already climbed up to fifth after starting eighth.
Crucially for Weug, she managed to get ahead of her championship rival Pin, who was still stuck in seventh.
The action was soon paused after Nicole Havrda slammed into the barriers soon after the race start, bringing out a Safety Car that lasted till Lap the next lap.
At the restart, Block flawlessly pulled ahead of Nobels while right behind the pair, Felbermayr was under pressure from Chambers.
Attempting a move on the Sauber driver, Chambers went wide twice, inviting Weug to join the fray. Chambers and Weug both managed to overtake Felbermayr through the following laps, who dropped down to sixth behind Ella Lloyd.
Meanwhile towards the rear end of the field, Alisha Palmowski was on a blazing charge through the field, climbing up to tenth after starting 18th following her qualifying crash.
Up front, a battle was brewing between Weug and Chambers for third, when a momentary yellow flag appeared as Rafaela Ferreira suddenly stopped mid-track but was able to keep going.
Another yellow flag was caused after contact between Wild Card Driver Lisa Billard and Alba Larsen, Billard then plummeting down the order after a standout qualifying performance.
Third-placed Weug soon began to pull away from Chambers, setting her sights on Nobels up in second. With 10 laps to go, the Ferrari driver swept past Nobels through Turn 15 to make up another spot.
After Chambers’ attack on Weug failed, the American driver now had to watch out for Lloyd in fourth chasing fourth.
The two drivers went wheel-to-wheel and came close to taking each other out, on several occasions, before Lloyd went wide at Turn 1 and incurred a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage – releasing Chambers from immediate pressure.
Her Campos teammate Palmowski’s electric fight up the ranks was unexpectedly curtailed on Lap 7, as she pivoted into the wall at the entry of Turn 9 with a heavy crash.
At the same time, Billard’s race had also come to a disheartening end after smoke and flames began to spew from her engine, bringing out a second Safety Car of the afternoon.
The green flag was out on Lap 9, and Block executed another tidy restart while her maiden victory came under threat from Weug behind.
Chambers meanwhile took third from Nobels, who was forced to go wide and rejoined the track in fifth, with Pin for company just behind.
Pin quickly passed the Puma-backed driver after Turn 13, but Nobels saw her chance at the next corner and braved it out through Turn 14 to reclaim the position from the championship leader.
Meanwhile, Ferreira had stopped again on track, but like the previous time, was able to keep running. Her stop-start situation was noted by Race Control who issued the black and orange flag for the Brazilian driver, who soon pulled into the pits to retire a second Campos car.
As the penultimate lap got underway, up in the lead, Block had a massive lock-up but Weug was unable to capitalise on the incident. The top three of Block, Weug and Chambers remained intact all the way to the flag, as Block claimed a long-awaited maiden F1 Academy victory following a first podium in the series last time out.
Behind the podium-finishers, fourth-placed Lloyd dropped down to seventh with her penalty being applied – promoting Nobels to fourth followed by Pin and Felbermayr. The points-scorers were rounded out by the last round’s Race 1 winner, Nina Gademan.
Race 2 – Weug snatches victory on the final lap from Pin in wet conditions
Race 2 was off to a dramatic start, with Pin immediately jumping Weug at the first corner, while Lloyd leaped up to third.
Weug’s start was slow, with Pin taking advantage after she had a cleaner launch from the grid.
Pin still hadn’t lost the Ferrari driver though, but Weug suffered a lock up and couldn’t close the gap to her title rival just yet.
Meanwhile, further back, Race 1 winner Block plummeted down the order and found herself 18th after an excursion at Turn 14. It was a different story for Palmowski, who was running in 12th after starting 18th, gaining more and more places with each lap.
But a miscalculated overtake at Turn 1 on Ciconte saw the Red Bull driver experience bouts of oversteer which saw her go wide, dropping her back to 14th.
Up front, Pin was still leading the field, Weug hot on her heels and holding the fastest lap.
Pin meanwhile was informed via the radio that rain cells were imminent, as the skies darkened overhead.
The battle for third was also still on between Lloyd and Chambers, the McLaren driver being hustled on by Chambers. Just ahead of them, Pin continued to eke out the gap to Weug, stealing the fastest lap from the Ferrari driver.
As the race approached the half-way point, Palmowski was warned of heavy showers in the next few laps, just as she recovered to 12th after a clean pass on Tina Hausmann.
Meanwhile the final points-paying positions were occupied by Larsen and Billard, followed by Chloe Chong in 10th – Larsen passing Billard on Lap 7.
At the head of the field, Weug and Chambers were running out of time to recover the positions they had both lost at the start of the race.
It was another position gained for Palmowski, who passed Chong for 10th, continuing her charge from the back of the grid.
The forecasted rain arrived on Lap 9, with Palmowski the first driver to peel into the pits to bolt on the wet tyres. As drivers began to slip and slide over the track, lap times began to fall away but only Block had elected to follow Palmowski’s lead – the other drivers electing to stay out to maintain track position.
On Lap 11, Havrda recorded a second crash of the weekend, inviting the Safety Car to neutralise the wet race as a handful of drivers including Chambers took to the pits to gamble on the wets.
Ahead in second, Weug elected to stay out to maintain track position and ensure she salvaged crucial points for her title bid despite missing out on P1 at the start.
As things stood behind the Safety Car, Pin, Weug and Lloyd were followed by Felbermayr and Larsen to complete the top five who stayed out.
With the Safety Car ending on Lap 13, it was down to a final lap drag race to the flag, with all the frontrunners on slicks on a slippery track.
Pin took the field back to racing with a punchy restart, but Weug came roaring back on the final lap of the wet conditions with a stunning pass on Pin to snatch back the lead she had lost at the start.
Weug secured victory in the dying moments of the race, while Pin took second with the fastest lap bonus followed by Lloyd with another podium in her impressive maiden season, lifting her to third in the Drivers’ Championship and knocking Chambers down to fourth and mathematically out of the title race.
Drivers’ Thoughts
Weug's dominant run of form with back-to-back poles and Race 2 victories has strengthened her championship bid.
Her last-lap lunge on Pin for the win was particularly a defining moment in the title fight, and Weug reflected: "That last lap was just crazy. I knew that the rain was one of my little chances to get past Doriane [Pin] today, so when it came down I was quite happy.
"I just made sure that I knew where the grip was during the Safety Car in each corner, especially Turn 5 and so on.
“I managed to get good temperature into the tyres – obviously they were cold, but I think they were in a good range compared to the others. That’s what gave me the win today."
The other star of the weekend was Block, who was elated with achieving her maiden victory in the series.
Speaking of her clinical Safety Car restarts that led her to the win, the American driver shared: "Here it’s just about trying to catch people off-guard because there are not many places to strategically do a restart. I was just waiting for Maya [Weug] to weave in my mirrors and then floor it from there.
"Both of my restarts were pretty good. I was happy about that — gave me some breathing room for sure."
Championship Standings After Singapore
Drivers’ Championship
Doriane Pin — 151
Maya Weug — 142
Ella Lloyd — 101
Chloe Chambers — 99
Alisha Palmowski — 73
Teams’ Championship
PREMA Racing — 257
MP Motorsport — 208
Campos Racing — 187
Rodin Motorsport — 156
ART Grand Prix — 44
Hitech TGR — 12
Up Next
The final showdown awaits us in the Entertainment Capital of the World, Las Vegas. With a fierce title battle to sort out, the F1 Academy community will eagerly await a return to the paddock on the 20th to 22nd November.
Comments