PREMA surges to victory in curtailed race weekend
PREMA Racing surged to victory and a double podium as the F1 Academy debuted at Lusail International Raceway this weekend. The Qatari venue welcomed the series for the penultimate round of the season, which ended up being curtailed on Sunday by a crash in a support series.
In Race 1, Doriane Pin started from pole and kept the position at the start. She then proceeded to improve her pace and margin to secure her third win of the year. Starting alongside her, Maya Weug finished third. Despite dealing with sickness since the start of the weekend, she battled her way to another podium in a clean race that didn't provide many passing chances to the frontrunners after the start.
Tina Hausmann faced a tough qualifying session as she was also experiencing sickness, but improved her pace as the weekend progressed, and with a positive starting spot for the second race, she was set to chase a very possible points finish. Unfortunately, due to extensive barrier repairs needed after an early crash, Race 2 was initially delayed and then canceled for good.
Making her series debut as a wild card, British racer Alisha Palmowski provided an impressive run, qualifying in P6 and P4 respectively, and posting a promising top-5 finish in the weekend's only race.
As it prepares for the final event of the year at Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi, the team congratulates Abbi Pulling on clinching the 2024 Driver Championship.
#19 - Tina Hausmann
"Testing went really well and this has become one of my favourite tracks. Then qualifying didn't go to plan even though I knew I had good potential, as I was feeling a bit sick. Race 1 was quite solid even though the result didn't reflect it and it gave me a lot of confidence for the second race with new tyres and a good starting position. It could have been good. Let's see what happens. I hope we get the track time back in Abu Dhabi!"
#28 - Doriane Pin
"Overall it has been a really good weekend. I'm very happy with what we have achieved and I had an amazing car since the beginning here in Qatar. I'm very satisfied with taking two poles and one win with such a strong pace. Unfortunately, the cancellation of Race 2 did not allow us to race on Sunday, but we will focus on continuing strong in Abu Dhabi."
#64 - Maya Weug
"Strange weekend here in Qatar. I started feeling sick on Friday, and I didn't feel good for the whole weekend except for Sunday morning when we didn't race. Still, qualifying was good and the pace was there. We were quite close to Doriane. At the start of the first race, I made a mistake, and tried to go to the outside and there was not the grip I expected. That made me lose one position to Abbi. After that, it was difficult to overtake and not being well, I stayed there, trying not to make mistakes and survive."
#6 - Alisha Palmowski
"Overall this weekend has been incredible, I loved every second of it and really embraced the whole opportunity. I'm super grateful to everybody at F1 Academy for this opportunity and everybody at PREMA for all their support. It's been a huge learning curve for me and I'm slightly disappointed to be totally honest, especially not getting Race 2 underway because I'm sure it could have given us an opportunity to fight for the top-3. However, I've learned absolutely loads. I identified a lot of strengths and weaknesses so I know exactly what I need to work on for the future. Overall to come away with a P5 is not a bad result but I do believe we had some more pace we didn't manage to unlock. Nevertheless, it's been a great experience."