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Abbi Wins 4th Successive Race in F1 Academy

Abbi Pulling continued her fantastic streak form in F1 Academy with a victory, double pole position and a podium at Barcelona.

The Alpine Academy and Rodin Motorsport Driver headed into Barcelona for Round 3 of F1 Academy as the championship leader - following a brace of victories last time out in Miami.
Abbi continued where she left off - by topping Free Practice on Friday morning to start the weekend off on the front roof.

The long delay between Free Practice and Qualifying would see both F1 Friday Practice Sessions as well as F2 and F3 practice and qualifying took place, before F1 Academy headed out for qualifying at 6pm.

This massive track evolution left jeopardy for all the teams in terms of anticipating the setup for the conditions. Following the early running in Qualifying - this looked like it was the case for Abbi and the team , as she searched for balance in the car - before pitting for changes and fresh tyres into the final 10 minutes of the session.
The changes transformed the car - as Abbi would go onto set three successive fastest laps as the session came to a close.
Abbi would go on to take pole position for Race 1 and Race 2 , with her fastest and second fastest time topping the timesheets - securing her second double pole position on a row !

Race 1 on Saturday saw Abbi make a good start from pole position, fending off the threat from fellow front row starter Nerea Martí into turn 1.
Abbi immediately pulled out a gap at the start, but this was quickly neutralised by the deployment of the Safety Car for a collision behind.
After 7 laps behind the Safety Car, Abbi led the restart and quickly got the jump on her rivals, as she pulled out a 1.5s gap to cement her position at the front of the field.

The Alpine Academy driver would soon set the fastest lap, as she proceeded  to extend her advantage out front.
Abbi would continue to keeping pulling out an advantage on the chasing pack throughout the remainder of the race, crossing the line to take home a clean-sweep of pole position, leading every lap, fastest lap and  her fourth F1 Academy victory in a row!

The second and final race of the weekend saw Abbi use the oldest tyres in her allocation.
She had a good launch, but fellow front row starter Chloe Chambers got a great getaway! They headed into Turn 1 side-by-side, with Chloe taking the lead on the inside.
Abbi would give chase in the early laps in second position - remaining in P2 at half distance, as she came under increasing pressure from the cars behind.

An unusual warning appeared on the dash which required Abbi to resort to some management while the team diagnosed the problem, as well as fending off her rivals well to hold position.

Into the closing stages, Chloe was out of reach in P1, so Abbi focussed on securing P2 - which she held to the chequered flag and continued her streak of being on the podium in every race so far in F1 Academy this year!

Abbi Pulling:

“Qualifying was really good with double pole! Getting 4 poles in a row is incredible and I can't thank Rodin Motorsport enough!
It was a really close call as we kind of changed the car too much from Practice and the balance was off - but the changes we did with my engineer during the pitstop in the middle of the session, helped us put it on double pole!"

"Race 1 I got off the line well and kept the lead. This was important as I knew it it the longest run to turn 1 of the season, so I had to defend hard and it would be the most important part of the race.
I had already planned out what I was going to do for the early Safety Car and I managed to pull out a good gap. After then it was just about being consistent and bring it home for our 4th win in a row!
It was incredible seeing everyone from the BWT Alpine F1 Team garage come to greet me as I entered parc ferme and watch under the podium for the celebrations! I am really thankful for their support and belief in me!"

"For Race 2 we had our worst tyres so I knew this would be more difficult. From the green flag lap I had a fault on my dash which was quite distracting and concerning - worried we may not finish the race. I lost the lead at the start but held 2nd well.
A couple of laps in I was struggling with the rear tyres and had to manage those - as we maybe underestimated the setup for the conditions as it was quite a lot cooler than before, but we learnt a valuable lesson we can take forward."

"Still I was happy with how I drove considering the situation and in terms of damage limitation and we secured from great points!
It was another fantastic weekend and hopefully we can continue to carry that form forwards next time out at Zandvoort!"


Abbi leaves Barcelona still at the top of the standings following her victory and podium across both races, increasing her advantage to 66 points over her nearest rival - Dorian Pin.

The next round of F1 Academy will take place at Zandvoort on the 23-25 July.

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