The Singapore GP weekend has gotten off to a strong start for Lia Block, securing her maiden F1 Academy win. After a less than ideal Qualifying session landed her in P8 for Race 2, it secured her pole for Race 1. Block reflected on her race, claiming she was “super happy”.
Not only is this a special race for Block, securing her first win, this win also marks ART Grand Prix’s first win in the series in two years. Block currently sits in P9 in the Championship Standings with 33 points to her name. With only one round remaining following Singapore, this win was important for her final points tally.
A race led from start to end
Block led Race 1 from start to end after starting from pole position. She described the feeling stating: “I feel great,”. While she acknowledged she wasn’t satisfied with the quality of her Free Practice or Qualifying, the win changed the tone.
The American reflected on her race, stating that the first half was rather difficult. Although drivers fighting behind her allowed her to focus on her own race and remain ahead. She also noted keeping an eye of Weug behind her a few times, but overall focused on herself.
“It wasn’t a great Qualifying or start to the weekend yesterday, but topping it off with a win, so I can go home now! Just kidding, I still have another race. It was a difficult first half of the race. Thankfully, there was a lot of fighting behind me, so I could just focus on myself. I figured some stuff out, got some more time out of the car and chilled to the end.
“I was looking in my mirrors a couple of times to see how close Maya was, but I just kept focusing on myself. It was pretty easy to the end, no squabbles, one lockup but we did it.”
Today’s race consisted of multiple Safety Car periods, meaning restarts were a large focus for Block’s race. She explained her approach to the restarts as the necessity to strategically catch everyone off-guard. Block detailed waiting for Weug to begin weaving, and then immediately commencing her restart.
“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 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.”
Coming into single seater racing with a rally background was always going to be a challenge for Block. Despite a struggle to her first season, her performance has seen improvements in her second and final season. The American described the feeling, stating: “It’s full circle now,”. Block spoke on the feelings surrounding starting “from the bottom” and rising to the win.
“I started from the bottom and now we’re at the top. It feels really good. Just means I have to work 10 times harder tomorrow to get another good result, but super happy with this.”
