Doriane Pin takes dominant F1 Academy victory in China
The Frenchwoman leaves the opening round of the 2025 F1 Academy in the lead of the standings.
SHANGHAI–Doriane Pin leaves the opening round of the F1 Academy in the lead of the drivers' standings after a dominant win in race two at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Pin made the jump for the lead over polesitter Maya Weug after the start, building a two-second lead by to take an assured victory and resume her familiar place at the top of the F1 Academy podium.
"I’m feeling amazing!” said the Frenchwoman.
"I’m really happy about this achievement. We put everything together, but we also aimed for this victory at the end of the weekend because we know it was the race where we score most of the points and we did it."
"It was important to do pole position but I think it’s more important to win this race today. I hope in Jeddah we will get pole and the win, but really happy about this achievement."
"I think we did a good strategy with the team and the team did a great job as well, so happy to finish on a high in China."
The race started behind the safety car after oil was left on the track during a previous race, with Pin pulling alongside the polesitter and taking the lead with an overtake around the outside of the sweeping first corner.
A collision between Tina Hausmann and Nina Gademan brought out the safety car and briefly neutralised the race, but Pin held fast and maintained her lead.
Meanwhile, Aussie Joanne Ciconte was fighting well in the midfield when she was clipped by Chloe Chong, spinning across the track into the path of Aurelia Nobels and Nicole Havrda. The race was over for all three as they made contact at turn eight.
Maya Weug kept a watching brief on the leader but was unable to catch her by the chequered flag, finishing second ahead of Chloe Chambers.
Pin leaves China in the lead of the standings on 31 points, ahead of Weug and Chambers, who are second and third after consecutive podiums in both races of the opening weekend.
Race one winner Alisha Palmowski is fourth, with Aussies Aiva Anagnostiadis and Joanne Ciconte in tenth and fifteenth respectively.
The F1 Academy heads to Saudi Arabia for an in-season test from 4-6 April before the Saudi Grand Prix at Jeddah from 18-20 April.
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