Abbi Pulling Secures All Three Pole Positions in Abu Dhabi

Abbi Pulling sealed all three pole positions up for grabs at Yas Marina as the Alpine Academy junior continued her impressive run of results in her final F1 ACADEMY race weekend. Adding to his total of seven poles for the season so far, Pulling looks very strong heading into the final three races of the year.

Pulling will line up alongside Chloe Chambers on the front row of the grid for all three races, with the Haas-backed driver looking very comfortable on track after dominating today’s first free practice session. Chambers will be eager to end his season with another win, having scored his first F1 ACADEMY victory earlier this year in Barcelona.

Hamda Al Qubaisi was quick in front of her home crowd and will start third for both Race 1 and Race 2 in the Red Bull Racing supported car. Doriane Pin had a tough session, with one of her best times cancelled due to a track limit violation, but will still line up third for the third and final race of the season on Sunday.

Once the session got underway, McLaren’s Bianca Bustamante was the first to attempt a push lap. A blockage affected her first attempt, a frequent problem for drivers on the grid during the session, but she bounced back to turn purple in all three sectors and 0.959 seconds ahead of everyone else.

Soon, others caught up to Bustamante’s benchmark, including Pulling and Emely De Heus, with the latter achieving her best qualifying performance of the season, having never started higher than 11th on the grid. Pulling, who also suffered a lock-up on her first lap, soon climbed to the top of the timesheet with a 1m 56.439s.

Pin, with a different qualifying strategy to those at the top of the time sheets, finally came out to do some reserve laps with 10 minutes left on the clock. The Mercedes-backed driver completed a fast lap to finish second, but this was soon cancelled due to a track limit violation and meant the pressure was really on. She eventually managed a lap to finish fourth, but the results would have been a very different story from her double pole at Lusail last weekend.

It seemed to be a two-way race for pole between Pulling and Chambers until Hamda Al Qubaisi jumped to the top with two minutes to go. Driving in front of her home fans, Al Qubaisi set a strong 1m 56.229s, but despite her best efforts she was unable to improve and settled for third place at the chequered flag.

Pulling went even faster on her final lap to end the session on top with a 1m 56.081s, with Chambers only 0.120s behind. They will lock the front row for all three races, with Hamda Al Qubaisi guaranteed a second row start for the same events. Both Bustamante and Pin will start in the top five in all races, with Pin third for Race 3.

Emely De Heus achieved her best result of the season, finishing sixth for Race 1, and will start ninth for Race 2 and tenth for Race 3. Ferrari’s Maya Weug will start sixth for Races 2 and 3, while Nerea Martí and Lia Block qualified in the top 10 for all three races.