An old school idea in motorsport is that second place is the first loser.
However, this was not the case for Abi Pring at the Qatar Grand Prix, his first race at the F1 Academy. Pule finished second behind Dorian Ping, but that was all he needed to win the F1 Academy Drivers' Championship.
Pring has been in commanding form this season, taking seven wins and finishing on the podium in the first 10 races of his F1 Academy campaign. It also dominated the weekend twice in May at the Miami and Singapore GPs. The last time the F1 Academy was active.
Thanks to his incredible form, Pring arrived in Qatar with an overwhelming lead. F1 Academy Standingsscoring 245 points for the season. This gave her a 95-point lead over Mercedes driver Ping at the start of the weekend.
This means that to win the title, you need to finish second to the pin or third to the winning pin while earning bonus points for the fastest lap.
He qualified third in the first F1 Academy race at the Qatar Grand Prix, marking the first time all season that there was no alpine driver at least on the front row. This placed her in second place behind Ping and Maya Veug, who took pole position in both races at the Qatar Grand Prix.
Immediately after the start, Pring was aggressive from the line and got off to a good start, settling into second place behind Ping and ahead of Weug, who appeared to be struggling with pace through the first six turns of the first lap. Pin began to pull away from Pring. By the second lap, he had built up a lead of more than 1 second over Pring.
However, Pring has also pulled away from Veug, and given what he needs to win the drivers' title, he will probably be content to settle for second place and watch the laps roll by. By the halfway mark, she was more than two seconds behind Ping, but also more than four seconds ahead of Veug, and was within striking distance of winning the title.
With five laps to go, Pring remained in second place, more than three seconds behind the pin, but still held a sizable lead over Weuk. On lap 12, the team advised her that she had a four-second gap in front of Viug and that she needed to “bring it home” to the checkered flag.
Moments later, the McLaren driver spun off the racing line and into the gravel, bringing out a yellow flag for Bianca Bustamante. She was able to rejoin the fight at the back of the grid and the race resumed.
“Don't hit the curb for two more laps,” came the warning from the Alpine pit wall on Pring's penultimate lap.
In the end, Ping took the checkered flag more than five seconds late, but did enough to secure second place and the drivers' title. The celebrations will begin in Alpine's garage and will likely continue into the evening.
There's a race tomorrow.
The title also secures Pring a fully-funded GB3 seat with Rodan Motorsport for the 2025 season.
