GB3: Frustrating weekend for Abbi Pulling at Spa Francorchamps
- RACERS
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Abbi Pulling faced a difficult weekend in round three of the GB3 Championship at Spa-Francorchamps, struggling with car balance across all three races to come away with a best finish of 16th.
Abbi Pulling endured a challenging weekend at Spa-Francorchamps for the third round of the 2025 GB3 Championship, recording a best finish of 16th in race one. Having struggled with the car’s handling throughout the event, The Rodin Motorsport driver was unable to move up the field after qualifying just outside the top ten.
After a dominant 2024 F1 Academy season—where she claimed nine wins from 14 races to take the title—Pulling earned a promotion to the GB3 Championship as part of her prize, marking a major step up in both machinery and competition. Alongside her F1 Academy campaign, Pulling also contested selected rounds in British F4, finishing seventh overall despite missing two events.
The 2025 GB3 season introduces Pulling to the more powerful Tatuus MSV GB3-025, along with a competitive calendar featuring legendary tracks such as Zandvoort, Spa, and Monza. Abbi immediately made a strong impression on her GB3 debut at Silverstone, qualifying fourth and securing top-five and top-six finishes in the first two races, in a remarkable debut. At round two in Zandvoort, the Rodin Motorsport driver however faced more difficulties, battling just outside the top ten and securing a best result of 11th in race three.
The third round in the Belgian Ardennes brought even more challenges, on a track she had never raced at before. The British driver struggled with car balance throughout the weekend and was unable to get fully comfortable. At the start of the weekend, Pulling ran around the top 15 in the testing and offcial practice, as she learned the iconic racetrack, but couldn’t quite find a setup that gave her confidence on the high-speed circuit.
In Friday afternoon’s 15-minute Q1 session, Pulling set a 2:16.598 as her first representative time, putting her P12. Hillspeed’s Freddie Slater, who had topped four of the five pre-event sessions, stopped out on circuit early, bringing out double-waved yellow flags. Once the session resumed, there were only a few minutes of green-flag running before a three-car incident at the Bus Stop chicane involving Lucas Fluxa, Deagan Fairclough, and Hiyu Yamakoshi brought the session to an early halt with four minutes still on the clock. The session was not restarted, and Pulling was classified 12th, in a position to still aim for a top ten.
In the second qualifying session, Pulling broke into the top 10 with a 2:15.710, before improving by half a second to a 2:15.336. However, the pace in the closing minutes was fast across the board, and she ultimately finished the session in P13.
On a sunny morning, Pulling lined up P12 for the first of the weekend’s 25-minute races. All 23 cars made it cleanly through La Source, and Pulling slipped to P14, still in the thick of a tight midfield pack heading up the Kemmel Straight. A collision for Divy Nandan at Les Combes brought out the safety car at the end of lap one. By then, Pulling had moved back up to P13.
The race resumed at the end of lap 3, but Pulling was passed by Jack Sherwood for P13. Freddie Slater and Deagan Fairclough continued their charge up the field, both getting ahead of Pulling and Sherwood, dropping Abbi to P16 by lap 4. A few laps later, Dion Gowda also overtook her, leaving Pulling P17, though she remained close behind Sherwood and began to improve her sector times.
With six minutes to go, Sherwood spun following contact with Nikita Johnson at Turn 1, triggering another safety car. Pulling, who had improved her personal best to a 2:17.6, gained a place to run 16th.
The race resumed for one final lap.
While Alex Ninovic broke away from Schwarze and Macintyre, who were fighting for second, Pulling attempted to fight for a top-15 result. However, she lost out to Keanu Al Azhari and crossed the line in P17. After post-race penalties, including a five-second time penalty for Fairclough, Pulling was classified 16th.
Saturday’s second race began under dry conditions following earlier rain. Pulling started from P13, with Kanato Le and Gianmarco Pradel sharing the front row. When the lights went out, championship leader Ninovic jumped into the lead from third. Pulling dropped to 14th on the opening lap as Seewooruthun gained positions with a strong launch.
By lap 2, Pulling had been overtaken by the recovering Fairclough but reclaimed a position as both passed Yuanpu Cui. She held P14, but soon came under pressure from Freddie Slater and Noah Lisle, who both got ahead, leaving her P17.
Regrouping, Pulling began to build a small gap to the cars behind and kept pace with Lisle ahead. She was lapping in the 2:17s range, dipping under that mark by lap 6 and opening a margin to Fluxa behind.
The chequered flag came two laps earlier than expected, and Pulling finished P17 once again after another tough race.
"Frustrated doesn’t ever cover it", she commented. "Struggled with the car all day, felt like I was fighting it every lap. Gutted with how it played out."
The final race of the weekend was run in damp conditions with split strategies across the field. While most of the front runners, including Schwarze and Daryanani from the front row, started on wet tyres, several drivers from the back gambled on slicks.
Pulling started P13 on wets, with three cars opting to switch to slicks from the pit lane after the formation lap. At lights out, the track was still visibly wet, and all cars made it cleanly through the opening corners. Pulling made a strong start, gaining two places to run P11.
Initially, the wets were the better tyre, but the track quickly began to dry. By lap 2, the slick-shod drivers who had started from the pits, including Fairclough, were already lapping several seconds faster.
Pulling held P12 but began losing ground as faster drivers on slicks, including Slater, overtook her.
However, she gained a place when early race leader Schwarze pitted to change tyres. Though she held her own for a few more laps, Pulling began to struggle with lap times in the 2:30s. She dropped to 14th as Gowda got past, and then to 16th as Schwarze and Fluxa—now on slicks—both came through. On the final lap, she lost out to Pradel and crossed the line in 17th after a difficult race where the wet tyre strategy ultimately didn’t pay off.
“A tough weekend at Spa, really disappointed to be honest", Pulling summarized. "I’ve been struggling a lot since Silverstone, struggling a bit with the handling and just some things I need to figure out.”
“But as always a massive thank you to all my sponsors, the team, Rodin Motorsport, Rodin Cars, and everyone else who’s supporting me.”
Abbi Pulling will now aim to regroup ahead of round four at the Hungaroring on 5–6 July.