F1 ACADEMY: Palmowski fends off Chambers to inherit first win in Shanghai

Alisha Palmowski put herself in the right place at the right time to start her rookie season off with victory in Race 1 in Shanghai.

The Red Bull Racing driver had fought her way through from fourth on the grid to second until the penultimate lap. Long-time leader Nina Gademan had held firm through three Safety Car restarts from reverse pole until an issue forced the Alpine driver to slow down, handing Palmowski the lead.

READ MORE: F1 ACADEMY partners with More than Equal as Official Driver Performance and Research Partner

She had a fight on her hands to keep it, as team mate Chloe Chambers tried to find a way past, but the Briton managed to hold in a sprint to the chequered flag.

Ferrari’s Maya Weug brought home her first piece of silverware in third, moving up from eighth in the reverse grid race. Doriane Pin was another climber in fourth, as the Mercedes driver narrowly avoided getting tangled up in contact between Alba Larsen and Emma Felbermayr late on.

Rafaela Ferreira steered clear of trouble to go from P16 to P5 for Racing Bulls, followed by McLaren’s Ella Lloyd, who turned a pit lane start into a P6 finish.

Larsen had to settle for seventh, demoted from fourth at the chequered flag after being handed a 10-second penalty for the incident with Felbermayr. Aiva Anagnostiadis inherited the final point on offer in P8 from Courtney Crone, as the Haas driver received a 10-second stop-go penalty for a starting procedure infringement which was converted into a 30-second time penalty.

F1 ACADEMY: Weug dominates Shanghai Qualifying to seal maiden pole position

Weug will be looking to turn pole into her first win of the year when Race 2 gets underway at 1045 local time (GMT+8).

You can read more about what happened in Race 1 on the F1 ACADEMY official website here.