Emma Felbermayr returns to victory in F1 Academy reverse-grid race at Silverstone

Emma Felbermayr reignited her 2026 F1 Academy title challenge with a commanding lights-to-flag victory in the reverse-grid race at Silverstone, ahead of Nina Gademan and Ella Lloyd.

Photo credits: Andy Hone / Audi

Emma Felbermayr reignited her 2026 F1 Academy title challenge with a commanding lights-to-flag victory in the reverse-grid race at Silverstone, while championship leader Alisha Palmowski still made up some positions with a fifth-place finish. Wild Card sensation Chiara Bättig recovered from a difficult opening lap to score her first championship point.

The third round of the 2026 F1 Academy season marked the championship's first-ever visit to the iconic Silverstone Circuit. After Friday's historic qualifying session, where Swiss Red Bull Junior Chiara Bättig became the first wildcard driver to secure pole position in F1 Academy history, Saturday's opening race featured the reverse-grid format, with the top eight qualifiers reversed.

That promoted championship contender Emma Felbermayr onto pole position after the Rodin Motorsport driver had qualified eighth. With Palmowski starting seventh following her front-row qualifying effort, the Austrian had an excellent opportunity to reduce the championship deficit before Sunday's feature race.

Alongside Felbermayr on the front row was Alpine Academy driver Nina Gademan, while Ella Lloyd and Rachel Robertson lined up on row two. Hitech enjoyed an impressive qualifying performance, placing also Ava Dobson fifth, while pole sitter Bättig faced the challenge of starting eighth.

When the lights went out, Felbermayr made an excellent launch and comfortably defended the inside line into Turn 1. Gademan was unable to challenge the pole sitter, with Lloyd holding third place behind the Dutchwoman.

Further back, both Esmee Kosterman and Jade Jacquet stalled on the grid - although both drivers eventually got their cars moving and rejoined the race, they immediately found themselves at the back of the field with significant ground to recover.

Bättig's race got off to a challenging start: the Swiss rookie lost momentum from eighth on the grid and immediately slipped behind Megan Bruce, dropping to ninth by the first corner. Bruce wasted no time capitalising on her strong launch, immediately attacking also Ava Dobson in one of the race's most entertaining battles; the pair ran wheel-to-wheel through the high-speed Copse corner before continuing their side-by-side duel through the famous Maggotts and Becketts complex. Dobson ultimately emerged ahead, but Bruce remained at striking distance.

Further down, Payton Westcott briefly ran off track but successfully rejoined without losing significant ground.

At the front, Lloyd made the strongest start among the leading trio and quickly piled pressure onto Gademan for second place. The Alpine driver defended resolutely, refusing to leave the door open for the McLaren-backed Welsh racer. Behind them, Rachel Robertson came under increasing pressure from Palmowski, who had already climbed from seventh to fifth on the opening lap.

Another driver making early progress was Ferrari junior Alba Larsen. After a difficult qualifying session that left her outside the top ten, the Danish driver immediately began her recovery, overtaking Bättig for ninth place. With the wildcard driver appearing to struggle at the beginning, Larsen initially looked to have the advantage.

Meanwhile, Bruce finally completed her move on Dobson to claim seventh place after several laps of close racing. The British driver now led an intensely competitive midfield group, with multiple cars separated by only a handful of tenths.

Out front, Felbermayr set the fastest lap with a 2:03.5 and steadily extended her advantage, opening a lead of almost two seconds over Gademan. Lloyd remained within half a second of the Alpine driver, keeping the pressure on in the battle for second.

After her difficult opening laps, Bättig gradually began to rediscover the pace that had earned her pole position on Friday: setting increasingly competitive sector times, the Swiss rookie closed rapidly on Larsen and launched her first attack at Stowe on lap six. Although she had to abandon that initial attempt, she remained attached to the Ferrari junior's rear wing.

Her persistence paid off moments later. At the end of the Wellington Straight, Bättig executed an excellent overtaking move to reclaim ninth position before immediately demonstrating her pace with the fastest lap of the race to that point, a 2:03.254. With Larsen dispatched, her attention quickly turned towards Ava Dobson ahead.

Further down the order, Kosterman was producing one of the strongest recovery drives of the race. After her opening-lap stall, the MP Motorsport driver rapidly reeled in the back of the field before overtaking both Kaylee Countryman and Mathilda Paatz to climb into fifteenth. The Dutch driver was remarkably quick in clean air and would claim the fastest lap of the race despite running outside the points-paying positions.

Photo credits: F1 Academy Ltd

Back at the front, the leading five gradually began pulling away from the rest of the field. Gademan responded to Felbermayr's early pace by stringing together a sequence of consistently fast laps that reduced the gap slightly, although the Austrian remained comfortably in control.

Bättig continued her charge through the midfield while Bruce and Dobson resumed their fierce battle for position on lap eight. As the two rivals ran side-by-side once again, the resulting gap allowed the Swiss driver to seize her opportunity. Diving through at Stowe, Bättig swept past Bruce to move into eighth place. The prolonged battle between Bruce and Dobson also allowed Lisa Billard to escape further ahead after previously coming under pressure from the chasing pack.

Ahead of them, Robertson continued to defend from Palmowski. The championship leader remained close throughout the contest, but wisely avoided taking unnecessary risks, knowing valuable championship points were at stake.

Felbermayr never looked troubled during the final laps; maintaining an advantage of around 1.6 seconds over Gademan throughout the second half of the race, the Rodin Motorsport driver delivered a flawless lights-to-flag performance to claim her second victory of the season following her opening-round triumph in Shanghai.

The win marked Felbermayr's third career F1 Academy victory and fourth podium of the 2026 campaign, bouncing back after an unfortunate Montreal weekend that had cost her the championship lead.

Gademan secured second place for her sixth career F1 Academy podium and her second of the current season. The Alpine Academy driver successfully resisted Lloyd's early pressure before consolidating the position, to now move up to third in the championship standings.

Lloyd completed the podium to score an important first top-three finish of the year. After entering the season among the championship favourites, the McLaren-backed Welsh driver had endured a difficult opening two rounds, making her Silverstone podium a welcome breakthrough.

Robertson delivered one of her strongest F1 Academy performances to finish fourth and score her first points of the season, matching the personal-best result she had achieved during her one-off series debut in Las Vegas in 2025.

Palmowski limited the championship damage with fifth place, collecting valuable points ahead of Billard in sixth. Dobson completed another highly encouraging race to secure seventh after successfully holding off the recovering Bättig during the closing laps.

Despite the disappointing start, Bättig recovered well with several decisive overtaking moves to score her first F1 Academy championship point on debut.

Megan Bruce race 1 in ninth after featuring in several of the event's closest battles, while Larsen rounded out the top ten following her early progress.

Rafaela Ferreira finished eleventh after a clean and consistent race, ahead of Kosterman who was protagonist of a remarkable recovery to P12, overtaking both Natalia Granada and Ella Stevens in the closing laps while also setting the fastest lap of the race with a 2:03.238. However, because she finished outside the top ten, she was unable to claim the bonus championship point.

Stevens finished P13 in her first-ever race at Silverstone, ahead of Payton Westcott, who dropped to 14th after receiving a five-second penalty for a false start. Granada finished 15th, followed by Paatz, Countryman and Jacquet.

Although Palmowski saw her championship advantage reduced to 19 points over Felbermayr, the standings leader will have an immediate opportunity to respond in Sunday's feature race, where the pole-sitting wildcard Bättig will start from the front and challenge for maximum championship points.

The feature race is scheduled to begin at 10:00 local time on Sunday morning.