Ferrari Driver Academy member Maya Weug secured her first victory of the 2025 F1 Academy season in Race 2 at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia, inheriting the win after Red Bull Ford’s Chloe Chambers was penalised post-race. Chambers initially crossed the finish line first but was handed a five-second time penalty for forcing Weug off track during a critical early-lap battle. The penalty dropped her to second, ahead of Mercedes’ Doriane Pin, who completed the podium.
Chambers had started the race from pole position with Pin alongside her on the front row. The Red Bull driver had high hopes after her strong showing in Saturday’s reverse grid Race 1, in which she finished fourth. Lining up just behind them in third was Maya Weug, who had impressed with a runner-up finish in the opening race. Red Bull’s Alisha Palmowski, who had clinched third place in Race 1, started beside her on row two. Race 1 winner Ella Lloyd of McLaren began from seventh due to her qualifying result.
When the lights went out for the 13-lap sprint, Chambers held the lead while the Ferrari junior made a quick move on Pin to claim second place through Turns 1 and 2. Lloyd had a disastrous getaway, stalling on the grid before recovering at the rear of the field.
The early laps saw Chambers and Maya Weug begin to pull away from the pack, opening a 1.2-second gap to Pin by the end of Lap 1. Further back, Sauber’s Emma Felbermayr spun on Lap 2 during a hectic midfield battle. Meanwhile, Weug began mounting pressure on the leader, attempting a move at Turn 22 but was forced off and had to use the run-off area. She tried again on the main straight but couldn’t complete the pass.
However, her persistence paid off at the beginning of Lap 3, when she finally surged ahead of Chambers, only for both drivers to run wide after going wheel-to-wheel, allowing Pin to slip into second and relegating Weug to third. Questions immediately arose over whether Chambers had forced the Ferrari driver off-track.
Unfazed, Weug reclaimed second place from Pin with a bold overtake around the outside of Turn 1—her second similar move of the race—and set her sights on Chambers once more. After five laps, Chambers had set the fastest time and built a lead of just over a second, with Maya Weug and Pin trailing closely behind. Palmowski ran within striking distance in fourth.
The Ferrari Driver Academy member then responded by trimming the gap to eight-tenths on the next lap. Just as she was closing in, race control announced a five-second penalty for Chambers for the earlier incident with Weug, prompting urgent radio calls instructing the Red Bull driver to push and extend her lead to offset the time loss.
With five laps remaining, Maya Weug maintained her pace and stayed within striking range. Chambers looked increasingly vulnerable not only for the win but also for second place, with Pin sitting 2.7 seconds behind. However, the fight for the final podium spot wasn’t over, as Palmowski and Tommy Hilfiger’s Alba Larsen were both around 4.5 seconds adrift and battling hard in fourth and fifth. Chambers managed to open the gap to fourth past the five-second threshold on the penultimate lap, giving her a shot at salvaging a podium.
On the final lap, Chambers increased her pace and posted the fastest time of the race, managing to stretch her lead over Pin just enough to cling on to second despite the penalty. But it was Maya Weug who claimed the top step of the podium, becoming the first Ferrari driver to win an F1 Academy race in Jeddah and vaulting to the top of the 2025 standings in the process.
Pin completed the race in third, followed by strong performances from rookies Palmowski and Larsen. Aston Martin’s Tia Hausmann took sixth, ahead of Alpine’s Nina Gademan in seventh. Lloyd fought back to finish eighth after her troubled start, while 16-year-old Joanne Ciconte and Chloe Chong rounded out the top ten.
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