Qualifying for round 5 of the 2026 F1 Academy season at the United States GP in Austin has been completed, view the full report here.
For this weekend, the 17 regular drivers were joined by Wild Card Alexia Danielsson of Sweden. As always, the one-off entrant joins Rachel Robertson and Ava Dobson at Hitech.
As was the case in Montreal, there is an extra race held this weekend. The Opening Race takes place on Friday, with the Reverse Grid contest on Saturday, followed by the Feature Race on Sunday.
In Free Practice earlier in the day, it was Felbermayr fastest from Palmowski and Gademan as the top 3 in the standings continued to show the way. Home hero Westcott was in P4. Mathilda Paatz got no push laps in due to an issue with her PREMA car.
With two full points races this weekend, the second best lap time would sort the grid for Friday’s Opening Race. The fastest was for Sunday’s Feature Race.
Ava Dobson kicked things off with a 2:12.723 as Rachel Robertson had a 2:11.123 time deleted.
The early stages were full of track limit lap time deletions, including Emma Felbermayr.
Championship leader lays down serious markers in 2026 F1 Academy United States GP Qualifying
Alisha Palmowski logged a 2:09.008 to lead after nine minutes, followed by Larsen and Westcott. On her next attempt, the Austrian got a time in, splitting the Brit and Dane.
Purples in Sector 1 and 3 moved the points leader further clear as a 2:08.485 was a full 0.6s ahead of her main rival. Payton Westcott split them to end up 0.143s away. However, the Brit went even quicker on the next attempt, dipping down to a 2:08.337. She was purple, green and purple once more.
At the halfway mark, Palmowski led Westcott, Ferreira, Felbermayr, Larsen, Gademan, Billard, Granada, Lloyd and Bruce. There was a big 1.7s covering the top 10.
Into the final laps
On new tyres, a lot of improvements came. Emma Felbermayr was on a very fast lap but ran very wide in Turns 19 and 20 (lock-up), losing over half a second when she was on course for P1 or P2.
Billard went P2 with a fine lap, with Bruce and Jacquet also impressing by going into the Top 10.
After doing a 2:08.250 to go even quicker, Palmowski dipped into the 2:07s on a 2:07.955 to hold a commanding gap with three minutes left. Nonetheless, she did a yellow S3. Payton Westcott found even more as the American smashed in a 2:07.812 to go 0.143s faster.
Right at the end, Palmowski had taken P1 back but lost the time because of track limits coming out of Turn 20 as she prepared to start the lap. That meant it is pole position for Friday and Sunday for Payton Westcott. Gademan completed the top 3. It will be the same order for both main races.
Natalia Granada had an absolutely outstanding performance as she qualified P4 for Sunday’s contest, ahead of Larsen, Billard, Jacquet, Ferreira, Felbermayr and Robertson.
*UPDATE: Alisha Palmowski had her 2:07.714 time reinstated post-qualifying, meaning she will be on pole for the Friday and Sunday races.
