F1 ACADEMY: Lloyd narrowly holds off Weug to take thrilling maiden victory in Jeddah

McLaren’s Ella Lloyd thrived under intense pressure from the more experienced Maya Weug to secure her first win in F1 ACADEMY, taking Race 1 victory around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

The British driver had the advantage of starting on the front row of the grid, where she got the better of her Rodin Motorsport teammate Emma Felbermayr at Turn 1 to storm into the lead.

READ MORE: The storylines to get excited about as F1 ACADEMY returns in Jeddah

From there, she managed the race calmly over the opening stages, charging away from battles behind her to build a solid lead over her rivals. Felbermayr continued to drop back, losing P2 to Red Bull Racing’s Alisha Palmowski before Weug broke into the top three.

Just as series leader Doriane Pin was getting stuck into a fight for P6 with Tina Hausmann, disaster struck for Williams driver Lia Block, who had started in last place on the grid after she crashed out of Qualifying.

She was tagged from behind by Courtney Crone, bringing out the Safety Car and forcing Chloe Chong into a retirement as she sustained damage after trying to avoid the collision.

Lloyd controlled the restart well but the gap to Weug, who had taken P2 from Palmowski, rapidly closed down as Race 1 approached its end. The two took part in a thrilling drag race on the final lap, but the Briton managed to stave off the Ferrari driver and cross the line 0.176s ahead.

F1 ACADEMY: Chambers beats Pin under the floodlights in Jeddah for first pole position

Palmowski similarly held off Pin for the final podium spot as Alba Larsen took P5 over Aston Martin’s Tina Hausmann. Chloe Chambers, polesitter for Race 2, finished in P7, leaving Nina Gademan to take the final point of Race 1.

Chambers will be hoping to convert her maiden pole position to victory when Race 2 kicks off at 15:05 local time on Sunday (UTC+3).

You can read a full report on what happened in Race 1 on the F1 ACADEMY website here.