Abbi Pulling beats 18 boys to become first female winner in Formula 4

Pulling took the title at Brands Hatch on Sunday - Instagram

Abbi Pulling became the first female race winner in British F4 on Sunday, winning the fifth round of the series at Brands Hatch.

The win came seven days after the 21-year-old Alpine driver picked up a double victory in the all-female F1 Academy championship in Miami.

Pulling, who races for Rodin Motorsport in F4, led from lights to chequered flag in the reverse-grid race on Brands Hatch’s Indy layout, holding on to her lead on an eventful first lap which ended with the safety car coming out and then pulling away from the field once the race restarted with 11 minutes left on the clock.

Pulling, who finished sixth in F4 with JHR Developments back in 2020, taking four podiums, set the fastest lap then managed her tyres to take the win by 5.534 seconds. The field included 18 boys and four girls.

The victory completed a remarkable seven days for the driver from Gosberton in Lincolnshire who leads Season 2 of F1 Academy by 34 points from Mercedes’ Doriane Pin following her double victory in Miami.

While they sport F1 liveries and are backed by F1 teams, F1 Academy cars are F4 level, with the series champion potentially advancing to an F3 drive.

Pulling, who races for Alpine in F1 Academy but is run by Rodin Motorsport in the series, is in pole position to do just that with five rounds of Season 2 remaining, the first of which takes place in Barcelona next month.

“To be honest, I’m not even thinking about it,” she said at the end of the second race in Miami last weekend about the prospect of winning the title. “I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing. It seems to be working, keeping my headspace. I’m not even going to look at the table, it’s not worth it.”

“But I know that we have a little bit of a gap, so if anything was to go wrong — at least you’ve got that buffer.”

“I can’t thank the boys and girls at Rodin Motorsport enough for this weekend, it’s been absolute perfection.”

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