Wild Card entry Chiara Bättig carried the early momentum into F1 Academy Qualifying at the 2026 British GP after setting the pace in Free Practice. The Wella Professionals-backed driver finished 0.208s clear of championship leader Alisha Palmowski, who recovered from a delayed start to the session to take second. Nina Gademan and Emma Felbermayr followed closely behind, leaving the leading four separated by less than three tenths and setting the stage for an unpredictable battle for pole around Silverstone’s demanding high-speed layout.
Gademan sets the early pace at Silverstone
As qualifying for the 2026 F1 Academy British GP began, the entire field quickly headed onto the track to fight for pole position for Sunday’s Feature Race.
Several support series had already run at Silverstone after the morning’s Free Practice session, adding more rubber to the surface. Warmer conditions also changed the track and increased grip.
Gademan became the first driver to start a flying lap and set the initial benchmark with a 2:03.480. Palmowski then moved ahead, but she held the top spot only briefly before Gademan reclaimed provisional pole on her next lap.
Bättig takes provisional pole and targets F1 ACADEMY history
With the first half of qualifying for the 2026 F1 ACADEMY British Grand Prix complete, the field returned to the pits. The teams then fitted fresh tyres as the drivers prepared to challenge Gademan’s benchmark. Though the drivers needed to look out for track limits, as multiple times got deleted, including Rachel Robertson.
As the drivers headed back out, Lisa Billard was the first one to start a new fast lap with the goal of getting the pole for Sunday’s Feature Race. Billard put a lap of 2:02.180, 0.612 seconds faster than Gademan’s previous time. Though the Wild Card entry Bättig seemed to have a problem with it as she put out 2:01.929 lap, setting the provisional pole for now. This would be the first pole position for a Wild Card entry and on top of that Bättig would be the youngest pole sitter in F1 Academy so far with only 16 years of age.
Bättig holds off Palmowski to make F1 ACADEMY history
With the benchmark set by Bättig, the rest of the grid tried to beat it with around 4 minutes left on the clock. Palmowski came close, though only making it up into P2 with a gap of 0.249 seconds, this could be because of a big oversteer moment. It seemed like no one had the pace to beat the time of Bättig. With just one minute remaining, Esmee Kosterman spun and triggered yellow flags in the first sector. However, the incident did not stop the remaining drivers from attempting to beat Bättig’s benchmark.
Chiara Bättig then made F1 ACADEMY history at the 2026 British Grand Prix by securing pole position. At just 16 years old, she became the championship’s youngest-ever polesitter and the first Wild Card driver to take pole.
