F1
Alisha takes emotional home win at Silverstone
Check out how the Team got on British soil
Alisha Palmowski took a superbly controlled home Feature Race victory at Silverstone to cement her F1 Academy championship lead at the end of another strong weekend for the Red Bull Racing Academy Programme driver.
After finishing a useful fifth in the Reverse Grid race on Saturday, the Briton seized the lead at the start of Sunday’s main race, beating impressive wildcard Red Bull junior Chiara Bättig off the line to claim a lead she held to the flag.
Alisha took the first step towards a strong weekend by claiming her third front-row start of the season in Friday’s hotly contested qualifying session. The Red Bull racer was in the mix throughout and, in the end, only missed out on a third consecutive pole by 0.177s to 16-year-old surprise package Chiara, who was making her F1 Academy debut as a wildcard.
P2 in qualifying meant P7 for the start of Saturday’s Reverse Grid race, but Alisha was on the move as soon as the lights went out. A clean start saw her breeze past Lisa Billard and Ava Dobson, and as the field exited the Loop, Alisha was lining up an attack on Rachel Robertson.
The Puma-sponsored driver proved a tough nut to crack, however, and though Alisha was rarely more than half a second behind her fellow Briton, she could not pressure Rachel into a mistake. At the flag, Alisha had to settle for fifth place.
The four points secured meant that championship leader Alisha minimised the impact of her closest title rival, Emma Felbermayr, taking the Reverse Grid win, and the Red Bull driver went into Sunday’s Feature Race on 82 points, 19 clear of the Audi-supported Austrian.
At lights out, Alisha made the perfect start, getting off the line quicker than polesitter Chiara. The leading pair powered side by side towards Turn 1, Abbey, but Alisha held her nerve on the inside line and emerged from the high-speed right-hander at the front of the pack.
The Red Bull racer immediately began to build a gap, and by the start of lap two she was already 1.3 seconds clear of the Swiss polesitter. However, as the field crossed the line, there was contact between McLaren-supported Ella Stevens and VCARB driver Rafaela Ferreira.
The collision led to a short Safety Car period, and when the caution ended, Alisha controlled the restart perfectly to keep Chiara at bay.
With the lead secured once again, Alisha took firm control of the race, though it was not easy. Red Bull stablemate Chiara kept the pressure on throughout, but although the Swiss racer was never more than eight tenths behind, Alisha controlled the pace expertly to take an emotional home wins, the 25 points and the extra point on offer for fastest lap.
“Chiara is a great little driver, she gave me some hell there,” she laughed on the radio after taking her third win from seven races so far. “Thank you, this one is super special. These fans are incredible. They were lined up already at 7 or 8 this morning, so thank you to them too.”
Behind the top two, Emma took third place, and the results mean that Alisha leaves her home weekend with 102 points, 24 clear of Emma, while Nina Gademan is third on 50 points.