F1 Academy: Chloe Chambers takes fourth pole position as Pin edges Weug in tense Las Vegas qualifying
- RACERS
- 31 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Home hero Chloe Chambers claimed her fourth pole position of the season in Las Vegas, as Nina Gademan bagged the reverse grid pole position. Doriane Pin edged title rival Maya Weug in a tightly fought final qualifying session of the F1 Academy year.
After a technical issue took her out of free practice in final minutes, home hero Chloe Chambers bounced back and continued her remarkable qualifying form to take pole position in Las Vegas, while Nina Gademan secured the reverse-grid pole for Race 1. In the crucial final qualifying session of the year, Doriane Pin outqualified title rival Maya Weug in a tightly contested battle.
Following six rounds in which both Doriane Pin and Maya Weug proved themselves worthy championship contenders — Pin building an early lead before Weug fought back strongly at Zandvoort and Singapore — everything now comes down to the final weekend. The Las Vegas circuit, new to the series and to all drivers, adds a challenge to the title showdown: a fast but unforgiving street track, raced in low night-time temperatures, fittingly unpredictable for the season finale.
Pin entered the weekend as championship leader and immediately reaffirmed her status with a confident performance, topping the sole free practice session on Thursday night by two tenths over Weug. The session ended prematurely after around ten minutes remained when Chambers, then third fastest, suffered a technical failure that sent her into the barriers and brought out a red flag. With not enough time left for improvements once the session resumed, Pin remained fastest and the only driver in the 2:07s, carrying strong momentum into qualifying as she continued her search for a first pole of the season.
With a short turnaround between practice and the 30-minute qualifying session, where the first two championship points of the weekend were at stake, all eyes were therefore on the Ferrari–Mercedes title duel.
Nina Gademan and Ella Lloyd were first into the 2:10s, soon topped by Chambers, Lia Block, Alba Larsen, and then Maya Weug, who set a 2:08.894 before finding another three tenths on her next lap despite encountering traffic in the middle sector. Doriane Pin quickly responded: a strong second sector pushed her to a 2:08.174, taking provisional pole ten minutes into the session as Weug headed to the pits for adjustments.
Pin then dipped below the 2:08 barrier with a 2:07.825, though Chambers soon bettered it with a 2:07.825 of her own, already faster than Pin’s practice benchmark. Tina Hausmann put in a strong lap for third, ahead of Rafaela Ferreira, while rookie Rachel Robertson, making her first F1 Academy appearance and only her fifth F4 weekend, delivered a very promising run to go sixth.
Pin, showing the confidence of a championship leader, reclaimed the top spot with a 2:07.351 as the session approached its midpoint. Chambers, determined to end her F1 Academy stint on a high and to bounce back from the misfortune that derailed her title challenge in previous rounds, improved across all sectors and again took provisional pole with a 2:07.150. Meanwhile, MP Motorsport’s Weug continued building toward her final qualifying runs from sixth place.
With ten minutes remaining, some drivers pitted for fresh tyres, though most of the frontrunners chose to stay out and maintain rhythm. Pin set a new fastest second sector but could not match Chambers’ final sector, where the American benefitted from a tow. Alisha Palmowski, likewise gaining slipstream assistance, climbed to second, and with a perfectly timed strategy, Weug used Alba Larsen’s tow to move up to second with a record third sector three minutes from the end.
But Chambers remained the driver to beat, lowering the benchmark once more to 2:06.731. Palmowski returned to second with another strong lap, while drivers continued pushing hard and tactically seeking slipstreams. Pin worked with her Prema teammate Hausmann in the closing minutes to crucially outqualify Weug, though both were surpassed by a superb late lap from rookie Alba Larsen, who jumped to third, in one of her best qualifying runs of the season.
Unchallenged at the top, Chambers sealed her fourth pole position of the year with an even stronger 2:06.538, earning two valuable points in her fight for third in the championship. Campos Racing teammate Palmowski will join her on the front row for Race 2, with MP Motorsport’s Larsen starting from the second row alongside Doriane Pin and just ahead of Weug and Hausmann.
Emma Felbermayr qualified seventh and will start from the front row of the Race 1 reverse-grid contest, where Nina Gademan will lead the field from pole as the Alpine driver targets her second victory of the season following her home win at Zandvoort.
Rafaela Ferreira and Ella Lloyd completed the top ten, followed by Joanne Ciconte — who showed major improvement from practice — then Lia Block in P12, Aurelia Nobels, and Robertson, who impressed with P14 in her first F1 Academy qualifying. Courtney Crone and Chloe Chong followed, with wild card Payton Westcott in P17 ahead of her Hitech teammate Nicole Havrda.
The opening race of the weekend, the top-eight reverse-grid contest, will already play a major role in the title battle and is scheduled for Friday at 18:15 local time.
