Chiara Bättig makes F1 Academy history with sensational Silverstone pole position

Chiara Bättig continued her remarkable F1 Academy debut weekend by making championship history at Silverstone, becoming the first Wild Card driver ever to secure pole position after dominating qualifying at the series' inaugural visit to the iconic British circuit. Emma Felbermayr will line up from reverse grid pole.

Photo credits: F1 Academy Ltd

Chiara Bättig continued her remarkable F1 Academy debut weekend by making championship history at Silverstone, becoming the first Wild Card driver ever to secure pole position after dominating qualifying at the series' inaugural visit to the iconic British circuit.

The Swiss Red Bull Junior backed up her stunning pace from free practice, where she had already become the first Wild Card to top an F1 Academy session, by producing another outstanding performance, also becoming the youngest pole-sitter in the championship's history.

Following a single 40-minute practice session earlier in the day, drivers returned to the Silverstone circuit for a crucial 30-minute qualifying session held in significantly different late-afternoon conditions. While many competitors had benefited from an earlier collective test at the venue and several had raced at Silverstone during this year's British F4 Championship, qualifying remained an important challenge as drivers searched for the perfect setup.

Among those already familiar with the Northamptonshire circuit was Bättig, who had previously claimed a podium finish in British F4 at Silverstone earlier in her impressive rookie single-seater campaign. Having led free practice in commanding fashion, all eyes were on the Swiss teenager as she attempted to convert that pace into a strong grid position for her F1 Academy debut.

The session began with Nina Gademan establishing the first representative benchmark, recording a 2:03.3 to briefly head the timesheets. Championship leader Alisha Palmowski quickly responded, immediately lowering the pace by over three tenths of a second to move into first place, while Megan Bruce also produced a competitive opening lap to slot into second.

The Dutch driver responded with a 2:02.7 to reclaim provisional pole position just as Bättig completed her first flying lap. The Wild Card immediately demonstrated that her practice performance had been no fluke, posting a 2:02.8 to move into second place, less than one tenth behind Gademan.

Both Palmowski and Natalia Granada experienced sizeable slides early in their session, both managing to keep their cars on the circuit.

As the session approached its halfway point, Gademan continued to lead the order ahead of Bättig, Emma Felbermayr, Lisa Billard and Palmowski. With the initial tyre performance beginning to fade, the majority of the field returned to the pits to prepare for one final attack on fresh tyres.

With just ten minutes remaining, the decisive phase of qualifying got underway.

Billard was among the first drivers to improve dramatically: the Frenchwoman lit up the timing screens with purple sectors one and two before stopping the clocks at 2:02.180, briefly moving to the top of the standings with an excellent lap. Her time, however, would stand for only moments.

Bättig in fact immediately responded with another impressive lap, improving the benchmark through the second sector before becoming the first driver all weekend to break beneath the 2:02 barrier. Her 2:01.929 represented another statement from the Swiss rookie and restored her advantage at the top of the timing screens.

The Hitech driver was not finished yet: on her following attempt, Bättig extracted even more pace from the car, lowering the benchmark once again to a 2:01.775. The lap left her four tenths of a second clear of her nearest rival and firmly in control of the session.

Behind the Swiss driver, the battle for the remaining front-row position intensified. Ella Lloyd briefly climbed into third with a 2:02.5 before Emma Felbermayr displaced the British driver to move into the provisional top three.

Palmowski, meanwhile, continued pushing despite battling the balance of her Campos Racing car. The championship leader managed a strong 2:02.0 lap, good enough for second position, although still three tenths off Bättig's benchmark.

Rachel Robertson also enjoyed one of her strongest qualifying performances of the season, producing a 2:02.3 to climb into fourth, narrowly ahead of both Gademan and Lloyd. Ava Dobson continued her impressive Silverstone form after an encouraging practice session. Drawing on previous experience gained in the GB4 Championship at the circuit, the American delivered one of the biggest improvements of qualifying, recording a 2:02.382 to move into fourth place and secure her best-ever F1 Academy qualifying result.

Further back, Natalia Granada looked set for a significant improvement after producing a purple opening sector, however she ultimately lost time during the final part of the lap, and slotted into eleventh position.

Lloyd found additional pace during the closing minutes, improving sufficiently to edge ahead of Gademan for fifth with just over a minute remaining.

Esmee Kosterman's session concluded with a spin at the high-speed opening corner. Fortunately, the MP Motorsport LEGO Racing driver avoided any contact with barriers, although the incident prevented her from making any further improvements.

Confident in the pace she had already shown, Bättig elected to return to the pits before the session concluded, choosing to watch as the remainder of the field attempted unsuccessfully to challenge her benchmark. As the chequered flag fell, the Swiss teenager completed a historic achievement for both herself and the championship.

Bättig became the first Wild Card driver in F1 Academy history to secure pole position, having already become the first Wild Card to lead a session earlier in the day. In doing so, she also became the youngest pole-sitter in the history of the series, wrapping up an extraordinary Friday at Silverstone.

Palmowski secured second place to complete the front row, maintaining her strong championship momentum despite falling short of Bättig's pace.

Lisa Billard ultimately held onto third position, while Ava Dobson completed an excellent qualifying session in fourth, comfortably her strongest performance to date in the championship.

Robertson claimed fifth ahead of Lloyd, whose sixth-place result marked another encouraging step forward after a difficult opening phase of the season for the McLaren-supported driver.

Gademan, who had led much of the early running, eventually qualified seventh, while Felbermayr finished eighth - a position that handed the Rodin Motorsport driver reverse-grid pole position for Saturday's opening race.

Bruce secured ninth place ahead of Mercedes-supported Payton Westcott, who completed the top ten.

Just outside the top ten were Ella Stevens in eleventh and Granada in 12th, while Ferrari Driver Academy representative Alba Larsen once again narrowly missed out on the leading group in P13.

Rafaela Ferreira qualified P14 ahead of Kosterman, while Montreal race winner Mathilda Paatz endured a much more difficult session than she had experienced in Canada, ending qualifying only 16th after being unable to rediscover the pace that had resulted in her maiden podiums and first F1 Academy victory. Kaylee Countryman and Jade Jacquet completed the 18-car field.

Attention now turns to Saturday's opening reverse-grid race, where the top eight qualifiers will be reversed: Audi's Emma Felbermayr will therefore start from pole position alongside Gademan, with Lloyd and Robertson lining up on the second row. Race 1 is scheduled to begin at 18:05 local time.