F1 ACADEMY: Pulling and Pin seal poles in wet Zandvoort Qualifying battle

Standings leader Abbi Pulling mastered the rain in Zandvoort, as the Alpine driver secured her fifth consecutive pole position of the 2024 F1 ACADEMY campaign.

However, the Briton didn’t have it all her own way. Doriane Pin bounced back with a run of late improvements to wrestle pole for Race 2 away from Pulling by only 0.011s.

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After scrubbing in a set of wet tyres in the drizzly conditions at the end of FP1, Pulling enjoyed an early grip advantage. The first driver to break into the 1:46s, she recorded a 1:46.746s lap with 17 minutes left on the clock — a time that remained untouchable to the chequered flag.

Pulling’s 1.2s gap to P2 steadily began to be whittled down, with Lia Block closing to nine tenths as the field petered into the pits to swap onto their second sets of tyres.

At the same time the cars headed back out, the rain eased off but conditions remained tricky. McLaren’s Bianca Bustamante brought out the Red Flag with just over six minutes to go, hitting the wall at Turn 3.

Finding their way through traffic once running resumed, Pin made the most of her final flying laps. Whilst her fastest lap wasn’t enough to seal pole for Race 1, the Mercedes driver’s consistency was rewarded, as she edged out Pulling for pole in Race 2 with her second-fastest lap.

Nerea Martí was another late improver, claiming third on the grid for Race 1 ahead of home favourite Maya Weug and Aurelia Nobels. Wild Card Nina Gademan was in terrific form in her first F1 ACADEMY Qualifying session, sealing two P6 starts. Chloe Chambers will line up in P7 this afternoon ahead of Block, Hamda Al Qubaisi and Jessica Edgar.

READ MORE: Nina Gademan secures F1 ACADEMY Wild Card entry for Round 4 in Zandvoort

Weug lines up on the second row for Race 2 on Sunday alongside Nobels. Martí will start from fifth, with Gademan, Block, Hamda Al Qubaisi, Carrie Schreiner and Tina Hausmann completing the top 10.

Lights go out for Race 1 at 17:05 local time. For an in-depth report of the F1 ACADEMY Qualifying session in Zandvoort, head to the official website here.