Gosberton race ace Abbi Pulling continued her fantastic streak of form in the F1 Academy with a win and second place after earning two pole-position starts in round three of the series in Barcelona.
It followed two outright victories in Miami last time out and leaves her sitting pretty for the summer break, 66 points clear of the chasing pack ahead of round four in the Netherlands at the Zandvoort circuit on August 23-25.
“It was another fantastic weekend and hopefully we can continue to carry that form forward at Zandvoort,” said the delighted Alpine Academy and Rodin Motorsport driver.
Pulling started the weekend well, topping free practice on Friday morning but then had a long wait for qualifying. That created difficulties in the car and tyre set-up and she had to search for balance before pitting for changes and fresh tyres in the final 10 minutes of the session.
The changes transformed the car as the Brit set three consecutive fastest laps, securing pole position for both races.
Saturday’s opening race saw Pulling make a good start, fending off the threat of Campos Racing’s Nerea Marti into turn one.
She quickly opened up a gap only for it to be neutralised by the deployment of the safety car for a collision behind her.
After seven laps behind the safety car, Pulling led the restart and quickly got the jump on her rivals as she opened a 1.5-second lead.
She then set the fastest lap of the race and continued to pull clear to chalk up a fourth consecutive victory in a row, 4.7 seconds clear of the pack to add to her double success in Miami and the earlier win in Saudi Arabia.
The second race of the weekend saw Pulling use the oldest tyres in her allocation but she still made a good launch only for fellow front row starter Chloe Chambers to make an even better getaway.
Pulling gave chase and stayed second at half distance, despite increasing pressure from the cars behind her with only a second separating her and Marti, Emirati Hamda Al Qubaisi and France’s Doriane Pin.
A warning appeared on her dash, which required Pulling to resort to some management while her team diagnosed the problem. Despite that handicap, she continued to fend off her rivals to hold position and follow American Chambers over the line for a sixth consecutive top-two finish.
Pulling said: “Qualifying was really good and getting four poles in a row is incredible. I can’t thank Rodin Motorsport enough. It was a really close call as we changed the car too much from practice and the balance was off but the changes we did with my engineer during the pitstop in the middle of the session, helped us.”
Pulling got off the line well in the first race and said: “This was important as I knew it is the longest run to turn one of the season, so I had to defend hard and it was the most important part of the race.
“I had already planned what I was going to do for the early safety car and I managed to pull out a good gap. After then it was just about being consistent and bring it home.
“It was incredible seeing everyone from the BWT Alpine F1 Team garage come to greet me as I entered parc ferme and watch under the podium for the celebrations. I am really thankful for their support and belief in me.”
Pulling knew the second race would be tougher, due to racing on old tyres but was not expecting other difficulties.
“We had our worst tyres but from the green flag lap I had a fault on my dash, which was quite distracting and concerning. I was worried we may not finish the race and lost the lead at the start.
“A couple of laps in I was struggling with the rear tyres and had to manage those. We maybe underestimated the set-up for the conditions as it was quite a lot cooler than before, but we learned a valuable lesson we can take forward. I was happy with how I drove considering the situation and, in terms of damage limitation, we secured some great points.”
