F1 Academy has returned after a month break, with the drivers returning to the streets of the Marina Bay Circuit for the second year. With the conditions for the weekend set to be humid and wet, the only Free Practice (FP) session will be essential for drivers to get comfortable with the track and the unpleasant conditions at the F1 Academy Singapore GP.
Doriane Pin currently leads the Drivers’ Standings with 127 points, followed by Maya Weug in P2 on 107, while Chloe Chambers rounds out the top three with 93. If the Mercedes driver can outscore her Ferrari rival and the rest of the field by 20 points in Singapore, she will clinch the title with a round to spare. A 40-point advantage would guarantee Pin the 2025 Championship, leaving only 39 points available in the Las Vegas finale.
Replacements and Wild Card Entry
Megan Bruce has stepped into the Tag Heuer seat for Round 6, replacing Aiva Anagnostiadis, who was sidelined after sustaining a fracture to her left foot and has been ruled out of the F1 Academy Singapore GP.
Joining the grid as a Wild Card entry is Lisa Billard, who makes history as the youngest Wild Card driver in the series. She will drive the #60 car in a special Gatorade livery, celebrating the brand’s 60th anniversary.
Round 6 commences
As the cars set out on their practice laps, it was Ferreira’s Racing Bulls car that appeared to have smoke spilling out the back of her car, where she was then ruled out of the weekends one and only Practice session, with Campos Racing unable to get her car going again. With all cars retreating to the pit lane after the Safety Car run, they changed tyres and slowly started to peel onto the track, getting used to the bumpy track surface and humid conditions.
Weug set the early benchmark, posting a 2:07.505 before lowering her own time to an impressive 2:06.030.
Soon after, Billard registered a 2:08.351, with Bruce following in at 2:10.061. Championship leader Pin then slotted into second place, 1.7 seconds adrift of Weug’s best effort, before Lloyd climbed into the top three, 2.5 seconds off the pace.
Both Pin and Weug continued to find pace as the session developed. Pin surged to the top of the leaderboard with a 2:04.648, while Weug kept the pressure on, just 0.6 seconds adrift. Palmowski also made gains, moving herself within 0.8 seconds of Pin’s benchmark.
Weug continued to improve her time and took the lead of the session, while Palmowski also improved her time, finishing less than 0.068 seconds behind.
15 minutes left of Free Practice
The session’s first Yellow Flag appeared when Wild Card entry Billard lost the rear of the car at the end of Turn 18 and spun off. She was able to re-join safely and continue her laps. The session also provided valuable practice in the weekend conditions, with Race 1 expected to run under similar timing tomorrow.
The drivers were struggling with tyre wear at the end of their laps, with the temperature on track and in the tyres heating up and the rear of most cars slipping and sliding out from underneath them, unable to improve on their laps.
5 minutes on the clock
As the drivers returned to the pits to cool their cars and tyres, they headed back out for the final minutes of the session to improve their times. Palmowski set a purple sector in Sector 1 and vaulted to the top of the standings with a 2:04.152. Pin responded with her own purple sector in Sector 1 but could only manage P2, just 0.041 seconds behind Palmowski.
As the session entered its final moments, the track continued to improve, allowing both Pin and Weug to set faster laps, leaving less than a tenth of a second separating the top three. Meanwhile, Bruce was ruled out of the closing minutes after encountering an issue with her car in the pit lane, preventing her from returning to the track. Chambers, down in P4, was 0.5 seconds off the pace of the top 3.
F1 Academy Singapore GP FP results
- D. Pin 2:03.944
- M. Weug
- A. Palmowski
- C. Chambers
- E. Lloyd
- L. Billard
- A. Nobels
- T. Hausmann
- N. Gademan
- E. Felbermayr
- C. Chong
- N. Havrda
- C. Crone
- L. Block
- A. Larsen
- J. Ciconte
- M. Bruce
- R. Ferreira
