Maya Weug tops F1 Academy practice but expects a ‘close’ fight for pole position

When F1 Academy practice drew to a close Friday at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Ferrari driver Maya Weug topped the timing sheets ahead of Alisha Palmowski and Doriane Pin.

But Weug is predicting a tight battle for pole position in qualifying later tonight.

“The car felt quite good. I managed to get in some clean laps and do the program that we were planning to do. Just need to make small tweaks here and there on driving and also set-up to make sure that tonight we can extract everything,” said Weug following the practice session.

“It’s going to be very close because already Practice was very close. We have to make sure that we make the least or the smallest mistakes possible during the whole lap because it’s a long lap and try to get pole tonight.”

Weug also believes that the grip level will be much different during qualifying, as the session comes at night and follows a full day of track action. With that extra rubber on the surface of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, there will be more grip for each driver, and perhaps more time to be found.

Getting used to the track evolution, however, will be a big part of qualifying under the lights.

“Extracting the most out of the grip that there is because now we have two F1 sessions coming up and also F2 have their Quali, so the grip will be insanely higher than what we had before,” said Weug when asked what the toughest part of qualifying will be.

“When it’s cooler, the track improves even more. So, it will just be about, in the first run, getting everything out of the grip or understand where the grip is. Then, on the second run, get everything out of it. With a couple of laps that you have in Quali, it’s very important to get all out of it. It will be tricky because it’s going to change possibly from what we felt today.”

As Pin noted earlier this week, qualifying up front is important for achieving the best possible result, as overtaking was difficult in the F1 Academy race in Saudi Arabia last season. Weug knows she needs to put a big performance in under the lights to start up front in the second race, when the big points are handed out.

“As we saw last year overtaking is difficult with the dirty air and the hot air as well,” said Weug. “It’s really important to get a good Quali and then we’ll still have to make some moves in the first race. I’m looking forward to the reverse grid race as well because it’s quite fun”