GB3: Challenging Zandvoort round for Abbi Pulling, finishes just outside the top-10

After a very positive GB3 Championship debut at Silverstone—where reigning F1 Academy champion Abbi Pulling secured a top-five—the second round at Zandvoort brought more challenges for the Rodin Motorsport driver, who fought just outside the top 10 all weekend, securing a best result of 11th in the final race.

Photo credits: JEP

After a widely positive GB3 Championship debut at Silverstone—where reigning F1 Academy champion Abbi Pulling secured a top-five finish and battled at the sharp end of the pack—the second round at Zandvoort brought more challenges for the Rodin Motorsport driver, who fought just outside the top 10 all weekend, securing a best result of 11th in the final race.

Fresh off a dominant 2024 F1 Academy season—where she claimed nine wins from 14 races—Pulling carried her momentum into GB3, showing strong pace throughout the first weekend at Silverstone. She qualified a superb fourth and finished race one in fifth and race two in sixth, before an unfortunate spin in race three forced her into retirement.

Pulling’s promotion to GB3 came as part of her prize for winning the F1 Academy title, following a 2024 season in which she also competed in British F4, finishing seventh despite missing two rounds. The 2025 GB3 Championship marks a significant step up in both performance and competition, featuring a more powerful Tatuus MSV GB3-025 car equipped with DRS, and a calendar that includes iconic circuits such as Zandvoort, Spa-Francorchamps, and Monza.

At the second round of the season at Zandvoort, drivers had test sessions and three official practice outings to familiarise themselves with the circuit. Pulling returned to the Dutch track after competing there in both F1 Academy and British F4 in 2024—this time, however, she faced the challenge of a significantly more powerful and demanding car, with lap times already faster than those in FRECA.

Pulling made steady progress through the practice sessions, running within a second of the front-runners. She took a good step in FP2, setting a 1:31.004 to go 12th fastest, just seven tenths from the pacesetter. She maintained similar pace in FP3 but knew she needed to find more time in qualifying to break back into the top 10 on a circuit where starting position is crucial.

In Saturday morning's Q1 session, under sunny skies, Pulling opened with a 1:32.099 that briefly placed her sixth as times tumbled quickly. She continued to improve, shaving off nearly a second with a 1:31.203 to move up to P12. After a red flag caused by Jack Sherwood with five minutes remaining, the session resumed and Pulling improved again in the final sector, posting a 1:31.140 to end P13.

Q2 followed shortly afterward. Pulling’s first representative lap was a 1:31.107, before she dipped below the 1:31 mark with a 1:30.901—again placing her P13.

Photo credits: JEP

Lining up P13 for the first race of the weekend, Pulling aimed to fight back into the top 10—a position she had proven capable of reaching. The start was initially aborted due to a congested pitlane, causing a delay. When the race finally got underway, Pulling had a difficult getaway and slipped to P17.

She quickly recovered by passing Bostandjiev on lap 2 to take P16, running competitive lap times in the 1:34.5 range—faster than the cars around her—and soon began chasing teammate Flynn.

After Nikita Johnson ended up stranded in the gravel on lap 5, Pulling moved up to P15. She then overtook Flynn for P14 and settled there, with Bostandjiev close behind.

Pulling eventually crossed the line in P13, regaining her starting position in a solid opening race of the weekend, with evident pace still to unlock.

Starting P13 once again in race two on Sunday morning, held under sunny but chilly conditions, Pulling avoided the chaos that unfolded behind as Daryanani stalled on the grid and several battles and contacts broke out. She maintained P13 at first but was soon caught in a wheel-to-wheel battle with Jack Sherwood. The two ran side-by-side down the main straight, and Sherwood got ahead, dropping Pulling to P14.

She quickly retaliated, reclaiming P13, while Sherwood came under pressure from Nandan. Pulling managed to pull a few tenths clear, while Schwarze and Al Azhari battled ahead—giving Abbi an opportunity to close in. As Al Azhari overtook Schwarze, Pulling followed, gaining time through the first two sectors and intensifying the pressure.

With five laps to go, Pulling was still stuck behind Schwarze, while Daryanani—recovering from his poor start—was rapidly closing in. On the final lap, Pulling was right on Schwarze’s gearbox but couldn’t find a way past, crossing the line in P13 once again.

In the final race of the weekend—the reverse grid race—Pulling started P13, having just missed out on reverse grid pole. Daryanani started from pole alongside Macintyre, who got a great launch and took the lead in the #37 Elite Motorsport car.

Looking to gain places early, Pulling was three-wide into Turn 1 on the second lap and defended brilliantly on the inside line. A safety car was deployed on lap 3 after Flynn went off, neutralizing the race just as Pulling was in the thick of the midfield battle. The race resumed at the end of lap 5.

Immediately after the restart, a dramatic three-car crash at the banked Turn 3 eliminated Pradel, Daryanani, and Yuanpu Cui. Pulling was once again right in the action and managed to avoid the incident, moving up into P11. Another safety car followed, and the race would eventually go to time rather than laps.

After a lengthy recovery, the race restarted for the final two laps. Pulling had a clean restart and launched an attack on Sherwood for a place in the top 10, while also needing to defend from Lucas Fluxá. Despite the pressure, Pulling held her ground and crossed the line in P11—her best finish of the weekend.

Though the results were not quite what she had hoped for, the second round of the GB3 Championship still represented a valuable learning experience for Pulling. As she continues to adapt to the new car and highly competitive field, she’ll aim to return to the front-running positions at the next round at Spa-Francorchamps, from 30 May to 1 June.