Abbi Pulling secured her sixth win of the season in Singapore's first race, in a lights-to-flag run preceding a solid Maya Weug and Doriane Pin, who overcame a five second penalty to step on the podium and claim the fastest lap of the race.
Abbi Pulling secured another lights-to-flag victory at Singapore, bringing her total race victories this season to six. The Alpine Academy driver continued to extend her championship lead over Doriane Pin, with the French driver salvaging a third place despite a 5-second penalty.
Maya Weug was the only driver able to keep up with Pulling in the first half of the race, however, after asking too much from her tyres in the early stages, she couldn't challenge Pulling in the closing stages. The Ferrari driver however scored her second consecutive runner up finish, and moved into third in the standings.
Pulling and Weug shared the front row after a tightly contested qualifying session under the lights on Friday, with Doriane Pin starting in third for Race 1.
On a very warm Saturday morning that challenged the drivers, the cars lined up on the grid for the ninth race of the season.
However, the start was aborted when Bianca Bustamante’s car stopped outside of her starting box. After another formation lap, Bustamante returned to the grid instead of the pit lane, resulting in a 10-second stop-and-go penalty.
When the lights went out, Pulling took the lead safely over Weug, Pin, and Block, while Hamda Al Qubaisi and Aurelia Nobels went deep into Turn 1 but rejoined, albeit losing positions. Ella Lloyd moved up to sixth with a great getaway, while Chambers also made a strong start, climbing to fifth.
Block managed to stay close to Pulling, Weug, and Pin on the first lap, but Weug was the driver showing early momentum and tried to pressure Pulling. The British racer set the fastest lap and started to gain ground on her rival, who responded with a strong second sector and stayed within one second of the Alpine driver.
Starting from the last row due to a technical issue in qualifying, Amna Al Qubaisi made a solid recovery, passing De Heus and Nobels and then gaining another position on Bustamante when the Filipina served her penalty. Soon after, Amna caught and overtook Edgar for P12.
Her sister Hamda, on the other hand, had dropped to seventh after the start and began putting pressure on wild card Ella Lloyd, while also defending from Nerea Marti behind her. Lloyd held her ground well under pressure, but this battle allowed Chambers to pull away as she chased compatriot Lia Block ahead.
De Heus attempted a move at Turn 1 on Lap 6 on Nobels but had to back off and spun, though she rejoined without further incidents.
In a dramatic turn of events, Doriane Pin and Ella Lloyd were handed 5-second penalties for jumping the start. Pin, who had triggered the sensor for the smallest of margins, began logging 2:04 laps to increase her gap over Block to more than five seconds to cover the penalty.
Meanwhile, Pulling clocked a 2:04.469, the new fastest lap of the race, but Weug was only a hundredth of a second slower. As the race progressed, Weug's tyres couldn't quite keep up and Pulling, who had managed the race perfectly, opened a 2-second gap and claimed victory in Race 1, ahead of Maya Weug and Doriane Pin.
Pin secured third and snatched the fastest lap on the final tour, finishing 0.2 seconds clear of Lia Block. The Williams Academy driver, however, scored her personal best of the season with a remarkable fourth place, ahead of Chloe Chambers, who claimed her sixth top-5 finish of the year.
With Lloyd’s penalty, Hamda Al Qubaisi grabbed sixth and managed to hold off Nerea Marti. Carrie Schreiner finished eighth, back in the points for the third consecutive race.
Wild card Ella Lloyd, despite the penalty, finished ninth after a strong debut race, scoring two points. The final point went to Aston Martin’s Tina Hausmann.
Lola Lovinfosse held off pressure from Amna Al Qubaisi in the final laps to finish P11, with the Emirati settling for P12 after a strong recovery from the back of the pack.
Jessica Edgar, Aurelia Nobels, and Emely De Heus followed, with Bustamante rounding out the field after her unlucky incident on the grid.
With another commanding victory, Pulling extended her championship lead, now 84 points ahead of Pin with five races remaining. Weug moved ahead of Chambers in the standings, with just three points separating the Ferrari and Haas drivers. The biggest leap in the points table came from Lia Block, who jumped up to eighth after her superb performance in Singapore’s first race.
One more race is scheduled for Sunday, set to go green at 15:35 local time.
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