Garcia holds F1 Academy series lead despite difficult weekend

Despite holding onto the the standings lead it had been a tough weekend up until Garcia's win for the Prema Racing-run local driver.

It was another Spaniard, Nerea Marti, who took pole for the opening race, but the Campos Racing driver could not prevent Hamda Al Qubaisi bursting through at the start to put her MP Motorsport car in front. The Emirati held on all the way to win, and her team-mate and big sister Amna finished third behind Marti, only to be hit with two track-limits penalties.

That promoted Lena Buhler to third. Garcia, meanwhile, lost her pole position due to her own track-limits offences, but charged from 12th to sixth.

Garcia stayed on the track in qualifying for the finale, and converted her pole into a lights-to-flag win. Marti got ahead of front-row starter Abbi Pulling (Rodin Carlin), pulled away from the Brit for second, and applied the pressure to Garcia. In turn, Buhler was close behind Pulling.

In the reversed-grid race, it was Prema’s Bianca Bustamante who led all the way. Buhler was second after holding off the challenge from Al Qubaisi Jr. Apart from Pulling, the best British result was Chloe Grant’s fourth place in race one.