Abbi Pulling is top of the F1 Academy standings
Abbi Pulling dominated the second round of F1 Academy in Miami at the weekend with a clean sweep of race wins and pole positions.
The driver from Gosberton's double victory has cemented her place at the top of the F1 Academy standings with a 34 point lead over her nearest rival Doriane Pin.
The weekend started strong for Pulling as she was second in the opening practice session but, after her initial running, she believed that there was more pace in the car.
This turned out to be correct as in the second session she was fastest overall by more than two tenths of a second - a theme that would then continue for the rest of the weekend.
After practice, Pulling said: "I gave some comments to my engineer after that and, with how I felt in the car, to still be in second place and such a small amount off, I was quite confident.
"Going into free practice two and coming out of it, the car felt mint. I was really, really happy with it — not really any complaints to be honest. I got on it straightaway and the track just kept getting better and better.
“The track had rubbered in quite a significant amount, so it was fun to kind of get on top of that and figure it out, looking over the data now and seeing where we gained the time and so on and so forth."
Moving into qualifying, Pulling was the class of the field after setting fastest sector times every single lap which allowed her to take pole position for both races and gain an extra four points.
Starting alongside her title rival Pin, Pulling got a strong getaway, despite a small lock-up, and pulled out a lead of more than a second before the end of the opening lap.
From then on, it was a Max Verstappen-esque dominance from Pulling as she took the chequered flag five seconds ahead of her nearest rival - the first time the 21-year-old has crossed the line in first place.
Once again on pole, Pulling hoped she could pull the same feat off again, this time starting alongside McLaren's Bianca Bustamante
Despite the Filipino driver putting up more of a fight than Pin, the Alpine Academy ace once again sailed through into the lead.
Pulling then once again began to extend her lead, although this time she set the fastest lap of the race in the process and as a result took home the maximum points haul.
The 2024 F1 Academy season continues in Barcelona on June 21-23.