F1 Academy: Abbi Pulling leads Singapore practice

F1 Academy's sole practice session at Singapore saw Abbi Pulling top the timing sheets, ahead of Nerea Marti and Doriane Pin, in an action-packed session that set the stage for qualifying later in the day.

Photo credits: Alpine

F1 Academy kicked off its fifth round of the 2024 season, four weeks after its final European race at Zandvoort, where Abbi Pulling and Doriane Pin shared victories. In practice at the Singapore Marina Bay circuit, they once again proved to be the drivers to beat, with Alpine's Pulling ultimately setting the benchmark.

Singapore hosted a sole practice session instead of the usual two, at the third street circuit of the season. The drivers had 30 minutes to learn the track, with five drivers on the grid having previously raced here in the final W Series event in 2022. The main challenges would be the heat and humidity.

British F4 rookie Ella Lloyd joined the grid for the first time as a Wild Card entry operated by Prema Racing, sporting a livery dedicated to F1 Academy's "Discover Your Drive" programme. The Welsh racer however had a difficult start, with a technical issue on her outlap that forced her to spend several minutes in the pit lane.

Pin, who has top-level endurance racing experience in prototypes and is accustomed to high cockpit temperatures, aimed to make up ground on her championship rival Abbi Pulling. The two immediately alternated at the top of the timing sheets as the session went green, becoming the first drivers to break the 2:09 barrier.

Ferrari's Maya Weug was then the first to go under 2:07, with times dropping quickly due to track development. Hamda Al Qubaisi, sporting a special Red Bull livery, also ran towards the front, while Schreiner and Hausmann joined the top six 10 minutes into the session.

Ella Lloyd returned to the track, but her car came to a halt again. A yellow flag was waved shortly after when Jessica Edgar spun and tapped the barriers, damaging her rear wing.

Haas driver Chloe Chambers set a purple first sector and moved into fourth place,

becoming the closest challenger to Weug, Pin, and Pulling - before Lola Lovinfosse set a 2:05.854 to take third place mid-session. Chambers, however, found four more tenths to reclaim third.

Abbi Pulling was the first to break into the 2:04 range, snatching the top spot from Weug before pitting for the final 10 minutes.

Just outside the top ten, Lia Block spun but avoided the wall and continued. Lloyd also spun while trying to improve but managed to keep it out of the barriers.

Nerea Marti briefly moved up to second, before Doriane Pin, with a strong first sector, reclaimed the position, although she remained two-tenths behind Pulling. It was a busy session with only one practice and the track evolving quickly: Pin set another fastest first sector and eventually clocked the new benchmark of 2:04.492, topping Pulling by one tenth.

However, the Alpine Academy driver immediately responded with a 2:03.993, which secured her the fastest time in practice.

Nerea Marti managed to snatch second on her final run, three-tenths ahead of Pin in third. Maya Weug was fourth, and an impressive Carrie Schreiner put in a strong lap in the closing minutes to finish in the top five.

Lia Block and Chloe Chambers followed, just a tenth behind, while Hamda Al Qubaisi, who had been running in the top six all session, had her final lap deleted and had to settle for eighth. It was a positive session for Lola Lovinfosse and Aurelia Nobels, both finishing in the top ten, while Ella Lloyd found more speed in the final laps to set the eleventh-fastest time.

Bianca Bustamante encountered traffic in the final minutes and ended up P12, ahead of Tina Hausmann and Emely de Heus. Amna Al Qubaisi and Jessica Edgar, who spent the rest of the session in the pits repairing her rear wing, rounded out the field.

With F1's tight schedule, the drivers will now head directly into qualifying later this afternoon, with the session to set the grid for both races based on the fastest and second-fastest laps at 19:00 local time.