Doriane Pin secured pole position for both races in Qatar with a dominant qualifying performance, earning crucial points to keep her title hopes alive, while championship leader Abbi Pulling will start third, needing just 18 points this weekend to clinch the F1 Academy crown.
Saturday began with the penultimate F1 Academy qualifying session of the season—an important one, as pole position will already award two crucial championship points.
Doriane Pin is the only driver still mathematically in contention for the title but faces a daunting 95-point deficit to championship leader Abbi Pulling, who only needs to score 18 points over the weekend to secure her place as the second-ever F1 Academy champion.
Pin came into qualifying with a strong start to the weekend, having led both practice sessions on Friday with consistent pace under both daylight and night conditions at the Lusail International Circuit.
Her closest rivals—Pulling, Wild Card Alisha Palmowski, and Maya Weug—have been consistently challenging her, trading fast laps throughout practice.
Pulling, despite an early technical issue in FP1 that sidelined her car for much of the session, showed strong form in the later stages and ended the first day in second.
Qualifying positions have proven critical across the season, and this session promised to be no exception. However, a delay caused by a barrier change in the previous support race shortened the session to 23 minutes. With drivers required to deliver two fast laps to determine grid positions for Race 1 and Race 2, the session was set to be a tense battle.
Aurelia Nobels set the first sub-2:00 lap before Doriane Pin quickly raised the bar by entering the 1:55 range to take the early lead. Maya Weug responded with a 1:55.779, snatching the top spot with ten minutes to go. Alisha Palmowski followed in third, with Hamda Al Qubaisi in fourth and Abbi Pulling initially fifth.
Pin wasn’t done yet; the French driver went purple in Sector 2 and further improved her time, retaking provisional pole with six minutes left on the clock. Pulling pitted for adjustments before rejoining the session and managed to clock a 1:55.982—enough to climb to third but still two tenths behind Pin.
Meanwhile, Lia Block impressed with a great lap, posting a 1:55.8 to secure fourth place. Hamda Al Qubaisi also broke into the top five with a solid effort. Weug attempted to challenge Pin on her final run, improving her first sector, but ultimately fell short of demoting her teammate.
Doriane Pin therefore completed a perfect qualifying session, securing pole position for both races and earning four valuable points. She set the fastest lap of 1:55.267, and a second-best lap of 1:55.309, reinforcing her dominant performance so far and claiming the 4 extra points for qualifying.
Abbi Pulling will start third in both races, needing to move up just one position in Race 1 to mathematically seal the championship. The Alpine driver shares the second row with Lia Block, who delivered a stellar qualifying performance to take fourth. Hamda Al Qubaisi and Alisha Palmowski will start fifth and sixth respectively; the GB4 Vice-Champion, despite strong early form, was unable to improve in her final attempts, but her second-best lap puts her fourth on the grid of Race 2.
Nerea Marti will line up seventh on the grid, followed by Bianca Bustamante in eighth. Aurelia Nobels took ninth, while Jessica Edgar rounded out the top ten after another solid performance throughout the weekend.
Carrie Schreiner made a late improvement to secure 11th. Chloe Chambers, her Campos teammate, experienced a big understeer moment on her final lap, which sent her off track and left her unable to improve from 12th.
MP Motorsport teammates Emely De Heus and Amna Al Qubaisi will share the seventh row in 13th and 14th positions. Tina Hausmann and Lola Lovinfosse completed the field; the Frenchwoman struggled all Friday with an uncooperative car and setup challenges, which persisted into qualifying.
For Race 2, Palmowski will get the chance to line up from the second row,, with Hamda Al Qubaisi and Nerea Marti behind. Bianca Bustamante will be seventh, ahead of Lia Block as the Williams Academy driver loses a few spots from Race 1. Carrie Schreiner will be ninth, also gaining two places.
With a good second-best lap, Amna Al Qubaisi is set to start from eleventh, ahead of Hausmann, Edgar and De Heus. Lovinfosse and Chambers round out the grid; the young American having to recover from the back of the field after her most unlucky session this year.
Race 1 is scheduled for 23:05 local time, where all 16 drivers will battle under the lights of the scenic Qatari night.