Marta García became the first champion of the F1 Academy this Saturday in Austin. This is the new exclusively female championship in the promotion and access formulas to Formula 1, which accompanied the top class in almost all rounds of the inaugural season.
In the first race in the United States of America, the Prema driver capitalized on the pole position to stay in the lead, but at turn one, an incident between three drivers prompted the safety car. The neutralization ended on the sixth lap and García held off Abbi Pulling (Rodin Carlin) behind her. The first two were able to create a gap thanks to the battles for third place.
The British driver tried to close the gap to García, but without success, with the Spanish driver winning by 0.477s to become champion. She also scored the point for the fastest lap. Léna Bühler (ART Grand Prix) was also in the title fight and finished on the podium in this race, coming out on top in the duel with Nerea Martí (Campos) and Bianca Bustamante (Prema).
The second race in Austin saw the dominance of Hamda Al Qubaisi (MP Motorsport). Initially, she was chased by Chloe Chong (Prema), until she was overtaken shortly after by Bühler. On the second lap, she also lost position to Jessica Edgar (Rodin Carlin). García was involved in a collision with Edgar. She was called to the pits by the black and orange flag to fix the damage on the fourth lap, and although she returned to the track, she had to retire later on.
At the front, Al Qubaisi was dominant and won for the second time this year. Bühler came out on top in the battle for second place with Edgar, while Pulling finished fourth with the fastest lap. Martí finished in fifth.
