Academy Report: Taking Silverware in Spain

The Barcelona GP weekend noticed the Williams Racing Driver Academy hitting the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as all three F1 feeder championships featured on help billing.

Our younger drivers delivered podiums, private greatest finishes, and factors below the Spanish solar on Saturday and Sunday.

Williams Racing representatives additionally took to the Hungaroring and the Slovak Karting Middle in a busy weekend for the Academy. This is how everybody fared.

Franco returned to the rostrum for the second time in 2024, with a P2 end in Sunday’s Characteristic Race to internet our Argentine driver a stable factors haul.

His P3 qualification was simply 0.006s from pole place, however Franco used the excessive beginning place to stay within the hunt all through the 37-lap race.

Battling fellow South American Gabriel Bortoleto at the beginning and through VSC restarts stored Franco occupied.

But he was the one to internet a hard-fought podium spot, even holding sufficient tyre life to defend from a late-charging Juan Manuel Correa.

Saturday’s Dash Race noticed observe restrict violations for a lot of drivers, together with Franco, who dropped again to P18 after receiving a 10-second penalty.

The nice margins on show in qualifying that narrowly separated Franco from pole additionally affected Zak O’Sullivan, who was simply 0.026s away from a reverse grid P1 begin.

His P12 qualification, sadly, meant the British hopeful could be within the midpack for each races, coping with a DRS practice in Saturday’s Dash Race and degrading tyres in Sunday’s Characteristic.

Nonetheless, Zak stored his cool and did not obtain observe limits penalties or fall off the circuit in both race.

He ultimately completed one place from factors within the Dash Race with a P9 classification, whereas an early gamble to pit for the onerous compound tyre within the Characteristic did not repay, and the Monaco race winner crossed the road fifteenth.

Constant Sunday drives have stored Luke Browning within the prime spots of the F3 championship standings all season, and that continued in Spain with a P5 end within the Characteristic Race.

A P4 qualification meant Luke was on the sharp finish to safe extra factors, and he outdrove Nikola Tsolov early within the race with DRS help to advance to P3.

Sadly, a last-lap battle had Luke’s Hitech needing to run broad at Flip 3, and he dropped two positions however nonetheless picked up the Quickest Lap to go away Barcelona with 11 extra factors for his title struggle.

Saturday noticed a poor begin that had Luke drop out of the highest 10, however he stays P2 within the championship, simply 5 factors from the highest.

After securing her first single-seater level in Miami, Lia Block appeared decided to maintain that upward trajectory by finishing two extra top-10 finishes this weekend.

A season-best qualification had Lia beginning in P8 and P6 for Saturday’s Race 1 and Sunday’s Race 2, respectively, and she or he remained within the point-scoring positions all weekend.

The lengthy Security Automobile interval in Race 1 had her caught behind Tina Haussman through the opening laps, and a race-long struggle between the pair lastly had Lia cross the road in P10.

Haussmann was on the opposite facet of Lia’s automotive in Sunday’s Lap 1, although, and by fending her off after which overtaking Jess Edgar with the slipstream later within the race, Lia may shut the hole to teammate Bianca Bustamante.

With Bustmante carrying a five-second penalty, Lia’s persistence and consistency paid off, and she or he crossed the road in P7 however 4.962s behind the Filipina, that means a season-best P6 end.

A stable factors haul for Alessandro Giusti has stored the Frenchman within the higher championship positions as he raced round Budapest’s Hungaroring this weekend.

Someway, each the Formulation Regional European Championship by Alpine’s races have been dry regardless of torrential rain battering the circuit over the race weekend, however the racing was nonetheless unpredictable.

Race 1 noticed Alessandro qualifying in P4, the place the place he completed, nevertheless it was removed from simple, as a five-car struggle within the closing laps had drivers battling on and past the observe.

A post-race penalty in Race 2 meant a demotion from P6 to P7. Nonetheless, Alessandro realized loads of racecraft from his wheel-to-wheel moments in opposition to Pedro Clerot and Enzo Deligny, and he leaves Hungary P4 within the standings.

Oleksandr Bondarev took half within the European Championship’s third spherical at Bratislava’s Slovak Karting Middle with a busy weekend of karting.

Nevertheless, constant top-10 efforts through the qualifying heats sadly did not switch to Sunday’s final occasion.

A P20 begin within the remaining ended with none laps accomplished as Bondi suffered a DNF in a difficult weekend for our Ukrainian teenager.

It is a hectic summer time for our hopefuls, with this Spanish GP weekend kicking off continuous Academy motion.

Our F2 and F3 trio will be a part of us in Austria subsequent weekend, and July will see Alessandro heading to Mugello and Bondi to Motorland Aragon. In the meantime, Lia has an F1 Academy break till Zandvoort in August.