F1 ACADEMY: Palmowski seizes Zandvoort pole in dramatic wet-to-dry Qualifying

Alisha Palmowski took a dramatic last-ditch pole position in an eventful F1 ACADEMY Qualifying session, which started in the wet and finished in the dry.

The Red Bull Racing driver didn’t make it easy, taking a trip into the gravel early in the session, with pressure from both Alba Larsen and Ella Lloyd. However, in the final few seconds of the session she topped the timesheets with a 1:40.911 to take pole position in Zandvoort.

Larsen was on course for pole position after topping the timesheets for the first half of Qualifying, and in the last five minutes, but she ultimately lost out by 0.864s. Natalia Granada delivered her best-ever Qualifying performance in third.

Emma Felbermayr had to settle for fourth, with hometown hero Nina Gademan in fifth. Rachel Robertson finished in sixth place, ahead of Zoe Florescu with the Wild Card driver delivering a lap time good enough for P7. However, the Romanian was disqualified from Qualifying for a technical breach.

As a result, Megan Bruce moves up to seventh and Payton Westcott is promoted to pole for Saturday’s Reverse Grid Race.

Williams’ Jade Jacquet classified in ninth, while Esmee Kosterman completed the top 10 at her home event.

The series’ Zandvoort weekend will continue with the Reverse Grid Race, which is set to start at 14:30 local time on Saturday. Until then, you can read a full report from today’s F1 ACADEMY Qualifying session on the official website here.