Live Feature Race | Silverstone 2026 | F1 Academy

The first ever F1 Academy race at Silverstone saw a clean front row start, but issues for other drivers at the back. Megan Bruce was battling from 9th, while wildcard fastest qualifier Payar Batik moved on Larsen. There were moments to watch, yet all 18 competitors did finish, and it was championship contender Emma Felbermaier, backed by Audi, who did take the reverse grid win, and a fantastic performance for the Audi backing and for Emma Felbermaier. Welcome to the build-up to the feature race at Silverstone in this third round of F1 Academy in 2026, which will bring us to the halfway stage of this year's title battles for drivers and for teams. I'm Ben Edwards, and we are prepared for the race, handing out maximum points in a 13-lap event around the 3.6-mile 18-turn high-speed circuit where the start leads into two rapid corners, but then tightens up into Turn 4, the loop where braking has to be done clearly and efficiently. Yesterday we saw overtaking a challenge, but possible. It is possible that we saw one or two good moves, and today we have our wildcard, first-time F1 Academy racer, Kiara Batik, starting from pole position with me is rapid racer Abby Eaton. And Abby, do you think that Kiara can do what Emma Felbermaier did yesterday and win from that top spot? I think it's very possible. She's been absolutely rapid in all sessions this weekend, and she was arguably one of the fastest on the track yesterday in the race, too, so that'll be her main focus, getting off the line well. She did drop back slightly off the start, so she will have learned from that race start yesterday and hopefully some improvements today, and she'll be trying to lead off the line. Alicia Palmowski, though, the championship leader, is alongside her, and she has lots of experience, of course. And Lisa Billard doing a good job. The 16-year-old from France, she's starting in third place, and that's her best ever qualifying so far, to qualify third. Her best finish is fifth place, so we will see how she manages to get on. Let's take a look at the whole grid now as we prepare for this race. At the back, we have two 16-year-olds in their first F1 Academy season, Jacques Jacquet from France and Kaylee Countryman from the United States. On row eight, we then have the youngest winner so far, Mathilde Patz with Aston Martin, and we have the 21-year-old Dutch racer Esmee Kosterman starting in 15th. Brazilian Rafaela Ferreira in her second full season is 14th, while Ferrari-backed Alba Larsson, also in year two, starts in 13th place. Spanish competitor Natalia Granada starts in 12th, while McLaren-Oxygen-backed British driver Ella Stephens is in 11th place. Row five sees the Mercedes colours of Peyton Westgate side by side with Megan Bruce, who's had two podiums in Canada this year. Starting in eighth is yesterday's reverse grid winner, currently second in the championship, Emma Felbermaier, while Nina Gaidman, in seventh today, did finish second in that first race. Ella Lloyd from Wales starts sixth, also looking for a second podium this weekend, and Rachel Robertson from Scotland starting next alongside. Starting in fourth place, Eric Dobson seeking her first F1 Academy podium, as is Lisa Billard, 16-year-old from France. And then, on the front row, we have championship leader Alicia Palmowski, who's had two wins this year, but on pole, it's her first ever F1 Academy feature race for 16-year-old Swiss racer and wildcard entry, Chiara Batti, youngest ever driver on pole in F1 Academy. Yeah, some pretty impressive stats there from our wildcard driver. As you mentioned, we have got some fairly experienced drivers just next to her and behind her, so the main focus for Chiara is going to be getting off the line and trying to disappear into the distance. As you mentioned, overtaking yesterday wasn't the easiest, but it can be done, some decisive moves from Batti, and also some great battles from Megan Bruce and Ava Dobson down the pack. Absolutely, so they're getting ready for the formation lap, and it is Chiara Batti that we're talking about, this wildcard. So, wildcard means you get that one-off chance to compete in F1 Academy during a season, and often we then see a wildcard entry come in the following year for a full season. You're allowed to do a maximum of two full seasons, and you can have had a wildcard a previous year, but obviously seeing somebody do so well to qualify as a wildcard entry. She does know Silverstone, though, because she raced here just a few weeks ago, at the end of May, in British F4, so she does know the track very well. You're on the formation lap, riding on board with Alicja Palmowski, and Alicja Palmowski, of course, is the championship leader. And, Abi, thinking into this race, I mean, from her point of view, she knows that Chiara Batti is not a threat to her championship in any way, because she's only doing this one event. So, it is going to be a little bit different. So, we will look into that in a moment. But let's just hear from our top three drivers as they are preparing for the start. And starting in third place is the 16-year-old from France, Lisa Villard. I'm really happy because, you know, it's the first time for me at Silverstone. It's a really nice track, and I really enjoyed driving here. And, yeah, I was struggling a bit with the balance of the car this morning, so I'm happy we improved a lot for qualifying. And I was really confident in the car, so I was able to do what I want to do with the car. And, yeah, I'm really happy to have a good position for tomorrow and Sunday. To be starting on the front row, it's an incredible feeling. Shout out to Chiara as well for her first pole position. That's incredible. So, yeah, there's great opportunities starting on the front row. Obviously, I'd love to take the win, but equally, I'm in the championship fight and Chiara isn't. So, I've got to bear that in mind when we're racing. So, we'll see what we can do. Any opportunity we have, we'll definitely maximise it. I'm happy. I'm really thankful to the team and Bella for giving me this opportunity and providing me a good car. I'm happy. I don't really have words right now, but I think it's important to stay focused, analyse the data, what I did wrong, and, yeah, still be fast in the future race. So, it's going to be very interesting to see how Chiara Batti gets on well here, starting from that pole position. But as we heard from Alicia Palmowski, title-wise, she's just got to be there and just score points. Yeah, Alicia's got a wise head on her shoulders. She knows that she's not really battling Chiara for the points, but in terms of pride and in terms of trying to win at her home circuit as a Brit, it means a lot. So, I've no doubt Alicia's going to be trying to hop footer off the start and get into the lead. The high-tech team, this is an amazing opportunity for them, because they've got all of their three cars on top five positions on the grid. And high-tech have not scored well until coming to Silverstone, yet they've scored some points yesterday. They've got a real chance to maybe get some best results for this team. This team started last year, so they haven't been doing it for as long as many of the other teams involved in F1 Academy, but they've got a real opportunity here. Yeah, definitely. You can tell high-tech have got all the cars dialled in really nicely. And actually, the engineer that Fatigue's got on board is Zimba, who used to actually engineer for Alice Powell and Abby Pulling when she was in F1 Academy herself. So, the pair obviously have a good match there at the front, and they've been able to extract that pace out of the car. Yeah, I know, that's great news. And we shall see how this goes in the race. We're watching on board with Alicia Plamowski. A bit of tyre warming going on. Yeah, so slightly cooler today in comparison to yesterday's race temperatures. So, they'll be having to try and get a bit of more temperature into those tyres and make sure that they can get that drive off the line, not so much wheel spin, and trying to make steps forward. And just looking there at Megan Bruce. She's starting a bit further down than she would have liked, down in ninth place, having scored two podiums in Canada earlier this year. Let's see whether she's going to be able to move up the order a little bit. And just to remember, it is Plamowski leading the championship. Feldermayer is currently second in the points, Nina Gaidman in third. And Nina Gaidman starts seventh, Emma Feldermayer starts eighth. So, they will be looking for some good starts. It's green flag from the back of the grid as we prepare for the feature race at Silverstone. Lights out, F1 Academy is underway. And away goes our pole sitter, Kiana Batik. But it's a good start from Alicia Plamowski, the championship leader, who's got the inside line into the first corner and takes the lead. Alicia Plamowski is in front. Kiana Batik in second place. And you've got a good battle going on for third place as well at the moment down the outside. Ella Lloyd's done a fantastic job. Number 20 on the outside, she has come up from sixth place. Yeah, arguably another good start as well for Rachel Robertson. Hot-footed it up from fifth into third and is battling currently with Ella Lloyd. We did get someone on the back there, not quite get off the line. But, yeah, really, really expert job done by Alicia Plamowski. Yeah, that's very good, as you say. But also Rachel Robertson is now having a little look down, maybe get back down the inside of Ella Lloyd. But Emma just manages to fend her off. And behind Emma Felbermayer, who won yesterday with the Audi backing, she's now taking some slightly different lines, trying to see whether she can find a way through. Yeah, just trying to look to see if she can get the cut back. And actually good movement for us from her. She did qualify in eighth position. So some really good points for the top front runners in our championship battle here. As we see her sticking up the inside on Rachel Robertson on the way into Cop's Corner there. Really brave move. Yeah, that's fantastic. Emma Felbermayer gaining. And it's so important that Felbermayer, number five there, the Audi-backed machine, it's so important for her because in terms of championship, she is behind Palmoski by 19 points coming into this race. And she needs to close up. And as Palmoski is back into the lead again, the championship leader on target to score maximum points. Yeah, excellent. And excellent from all the drivers actually out the back there. There's lots of squabbles going on, but everyone keeping it fairly clean and not tripping over each other. As we see Alicia's put a brilliant gap already on Batigue. As we see a lunge of the inside there for Nina Gabeman on Rachel Robertson. So progress being made from those through the pack. As you see Ava Dobson sniffing on the heels as well to I think send it round the outside and knock them off on this occasion. Yeah, Ava Dobson, you can see with the American Express backing, she's with high tech as well. But that start did not work for Ava Dobson because she started in fourth place and she is now down in seventh. So she will be a bit gutted about that. But she is. Oh, we've got a clash. Oh, no. Ella Stephens is one of those. Oh, that's a shame. That's Rachel Ferreira as well. Yeah, just getting together on the straight there, looking not to spear into anyone else. And I think that's going to be game over for both of those drivers. They look like both cars had fairly heavy damage. Yeah, and that's a slightly strange place. We'll have to look back at exactly what happened there between them. But yeah, Ella Stephens and Rafaela Ferreira out of this race, by the looks of things, whether they can rejoin. We've got safety car. We have a safety car. So they will have to all slow down and pick up the places once again, just stay where they are. And then we will get back into racing. But clearly there is some sorting to do. And there is Ella Stephens out of her car, the damage to the front. She just can't take it any further. That's going to have to be picked up and moved. But they will be able to do that pretty efficiently there. And that is a great shame. Because Ella Stephens, British racer, she started down in 11th place and was really hoping to get some more points. She's best result this year has been eighth place. Let's have a look at the start of the race. First of all, though, and just pick up who gained and who lost. Because Alicia Talmowski, as we saw, did a good job. Rafaela Ferreira is still out there. OK. Some damage on that. She'll have to box. Yeah. What a shame. Oh, right rear. Yeah, you're absolutely right. Well, that's a shame for forever. Let's have a look at the start and see how this all went. Yeah, with both second row cars. Look at that. That was awful for Lisa Billard, wasn't it? Yeah. And actually, the front two got off pretty well. And it was just the extra, I think, actually into second gear where Alicia got the overspeed there. And yeah, it was right on board with Robertson. Fantastic start there. Really quick reactions to make sure she didn't plaster into the back of Billard. And front row view of the two battling in front of her. And yeah, really excellent start. So Alicia did just get slightly off the line quicker than fatigue to be expected. Obviously, she's well bedded into these cars in comparison to our wildcard driver. Yeah, that was very efficient. And to be fair, well played by Chiara Battiglia by not challenging too much. Because when you've got to move somebody like that. Let's see what happened in this incident. Ferreira on the outside here. Ella Stephens on the inside. Do they crash on the exit? Oh, that's a slightly odd one. Because Ferreira was coming in. Very strange. I think that's a mistake on Ferreira's part there. Stephens were giving really good room there. I think maybe just trying to psych her out somewhat. But that's Costum. Costum badly. And yeah, shame for Stephens there. She was completely innocent in that. I have to say, the others did a good job of avoiding it. Because it would have been terribly easy to crash into the two ahead of them. But they managed to avoid it. So well done to them. You could see Esme Costuman in particular there who managed to avoid it. Here's another view of it. Yeah, so they both got through the corner fine. And actually, it's way down the straight. You can just see Ferreira move across to the middle of the circuit where Stephens was. So yeah, a bit of a shame. Because Stephens actually moved in, didn't she? She moved to the right. And then she came at her again. That was a mistake. I have to say, I feel that that was a mistake by Raffaella Ferreira. I'm a little surprised because she's in her second year, second full year of F1 Academy. She was leading in Canada earlier this year. But she got a different penalty there. And so she didn't end up winning the race. But that looked like a real rookie mistake. Yeah, she's actually the only driver we've had that's led from lights to flag. And then obviously with the penalty, didn't get any points for it. So yeah, a bit of a strange one there. Potentially a bit of frustration in the car. But as you notice, Ella Stephens did try and actually move to the inside to get out of the way of the ever-squeezing Ferreira. But yeah, real shame for Stephens at her home track. She had good pace on the previous couple of sessions as well. Didn't quite get it together for qualifying. But yeah, a real shame for the Brit. So a bit of work going on in the car to see whether they can get her back out once again. It's obviously a bit of a tough one. It is the Campos team that run Raffaella Ferreira, the same team that run Alicia Tarbowsky, that is currently leading this race under safety car at this stage. And the Campos team leading in the team's series at the moment by quite a reasonable margin. From Rodin in second place, the Prema team, which has won the team's championships every year so far in F1 Academy. They're down in third place. Then you've got MT Motorsport in fourth, ART GP in fifth place and then Hitec down at the base. And interestingly, they are being brought through the pits because they want some nice clear space to get rid of Ella Stephens' car in a safe way. Yeah, exactly. You saw there was quite a lot of debris being flown onto the circuit. So the marshals will be working hard to clear the track from the debris and make sure that none of the other drivers get any punctures in their tyres and we can have some good racing to finish it out. It's interesting that they are actually studying into the incident between Ferreira and Ella Stephens. It's under investigation. So I do think that there may well be a penalty for Ferreira at the next event that we go to. There are three more events in F1 Academy through the rest of this season. The next event will be latter part of August at Zandvoort. And it may well be that she'll actually get a penalty for the grid, perhaps, at the races in Zandvoort as a result of what happened here. Yeah, and Zandvoort's a fantastic circuit. Very, very different to the fast-flowing, fairly flat circuit that is Silverstone. Zandvoort full of banking and some undulations on the circuit. So I know that it's a firm favourite of some of the drivers on the track as well. Interestingly enough, obviously the safety car potentially may come in on the next lap. But Alicia did pull a 1.3 second lead over Batteague and she's going to have to play her cards right to try and time this restart really well to try and again gain that space back on our wildcard entry. But she has got the experience. She's in her second year. And as you say, the restart after safety car where you're in front, you control when you go for it. That would be interesting. I think she'll be pretty smart on that. Rafaela Ferreira, yeah, she's out of the car now. So she isn't coming back out, although the team were trying to fix the car and maybe send her back out. But no, she's going to be watching the rest of the race and that was a bit of a disappointment for her. But as I say, there are still three more events to look forward to in F1 Academy in 2026. Zandvoort in August. Then there is Austin in the United States towards the end of October. And there'll be a triple race there as we've had at Montreal already this year. And then the final two races will take place at Las Vegas in November. That's when it'll all be finally sorted out. Although I say that, Alicja Palmowski is doing such a good job at the moment. If she carries on like this, she may wrap up the championship before we get to the very last one. Yeah, it's going to be a bit of a carbon copy of previous years if that happens. But I've no doubt that Emma Felbermaier is going to be trying all she can to close the gap up to her as we see the safety car will be coming in on this lap. So safety car lights are out. Alicja starting to back off and back the drivers up to pick which corner she wants to set off in. You can see her just having a glance in her mirrors seeing what the other cars behind her are up to. Yeah, so yeah, watch to see. She's just taking it steady at the moment. It's now up to her as to when to floor the throttle and go for it. Well, she's going to take it nice and easy out of stow corner. And as they come down to the final little section here, as they come through the veil and into the club and the double right-hander, this is probably where she's going to go for it on exit here. Yeah, there you go. You can see her flooring it as she comes through the double right-hander to start another lap. And actually, to be fair, Batik's done a good job there and managed to just pick up exactly what she was going to do. But Alicia Pawlowski's got the advantage and they've both pulled away a bit from Ella Lloyd. Yeah, so Alicia left it fairly late there. There was probably only going to be one time that she was going to go leaving it that late and Batik was wise to it. Having said that, as you say, they have got the jump on Ella Lloyd there who's getting some increasing pressure from Emma Felbermaier to challenge for third place. I'm impressed that Emma Felbermaier is already up into fourth place from eighth place on the bridge. She took the win yesterday with no real pressure. She was able to open up the gap early on. And now she is definitely putting Ella Lloyd under some serious pressure now as we come down towards Brooklyn. She's going for the inside move. And is she going to make it? Lloyd's going to try and go around the outside. You always get this side-by-side battle here. Fair enough, Ella has hailed it off, but she hasn't given up. She's going around the outside now, but no, that's not working for Emma Felbermaier. She has to tuck in behind again. Brilliant, brilliant racing there. Emma's trying all she can to get past Lloyd. And arguably, she looks like the quicker car at the moment, coming up into Copse. A tricky place to do the move and actually pull you alongside, but she is. And fantastic pushes Ella out over the green curbs. And this brings Nina Gaidman into the battle. Yeah, Nina Gaidman, number three, is a part of that as well. She finished second yesterday to Felbermaier, but she has just managed to get back in front. So, Emma Felbermaier, backed by Audi with the roadie in the team, has popped herself up into third place. Was that okay with the move with Ella Lloyd as they came out? Was she able to go fully wide there, do you think? Yeah, it's such a fast corner. You commit to that corner with the speed and your natural line is to flow out onto the red and white there. So, I didn't think anything was wrong with that corner, just with the overtake, just the nature of the corner. And some great battling as we went through Maggots and Becketts, as we see almost full wide there. Rachel Robertson trying to defend the inside and Natalia Granada also putting a fantastic move there. Didn't quite come off. I think Alva Larsson had an answer for that. Yeah, so Alva Larsson's in the Ferrari-backed machine and, as you say, Natalia Granada right behind her, who nearly got her. Granada's having another look, actually, trying to come through. They're in the top ten. All top ten do score. You just saw number 19. She is doing a good job at the moment. Natalia Granada, she started down in 12th place. She is currently in 9th position behind Alva Larsson. Meanwhile, there you are looking at Rachel Robertson. And she's lost out a little bit because she had started in 5th place, made a good start, but she's now down in 7th position. And they're still, look at the top two. They are really getting away from everybody else. Feldermaier holding on to that third place. Here we are, Granada's having another go at getting past Alva Larsson. And Granada's down the inside, done it this time. Yeah, fantastic move there. She had really good exit on the loop and through Aintree onto that back straight there. It was underneath the rear wing of Larsson and absolutely made that move stick into Brooklands quite comfortably. As you say, Ben, the top two have disappeared somewhat. 3.3 second gap from Emma Feldermaier, who's coming under increasing pressure from Nina Gaidman. So we see the safety car infringement for Kosterman and Westcott. So that will be looked into at the end of the race. Yeah, they're down in 11th and 12th places. And also Robertson, right? That's interesting. That's something they'll be looking at. This is Ella Lloyd when she was having that challenge with Emma Feldermaier. And, yeah, running over the kerb. Did she complain? So she is complaining that she got pushed off. Is that... I wonder if that's something that will be looked at or not because the position that Feldermaier had got alongside so well at that stage was a tricky one. We see a move done. Peyton Westcott on Kosterman there on the way into Stowe. Pretty much done and dusted, I think, although Kosterman's looking to try and get the move back. But, yeah, Peyton has definitely got that one boxed off. Yeah. But Peyton Westcott, who's had some good results, has twice finished third this year. She's struggling a little bit to get back up into the points where she really wants to be. Alicja Palmowski is still leading this race and she has set the fastest lap, so potentially getting the extra point as well as the win. 25 points for a win, a point for fastest lap, but that can still change. We did see that Chiara Pateek, the wild card, who's in second place, she did set fastest lap yesterday. And she actually got the point, although somebody else did set it by .001. That was Kosterman later in the race, but you have to be in the points to actually get the point for fastest lap. Pretty decisive driving there on the back straight, moving across to try and squeeze her out of the move. A little kick-up of dust off the edge of the circuit there. So we see Alba Larsson defending. Kosterman's going to try and get the cut back here on the exit of Luffield. She doesn't quite time it right, but actually I think she's got a good run here. She'll look to the inside through Woodcut and is going to stay there, just bouncing over the inside kerb and has to slot back in for Copse Corner. Alba Larsson has been struggling a little bit with illness this week, and I can see she is not quite being able to battle her pace, so I hope she's feeling OK. Let's just see Megan Bruce on board, and I believe Alba Larsson goes off in front. So that's what's brought her back into the path of everyone else. Megan did well to make sure she adjusted the steering accordingly, and it's easy to do there on the exit of the loop. You're running fine margins, running all the way to the edge of the kerb available, and if you get a bit of push at the front, potentially you'll just open it up, and a little trip through the grass is going to hinder all the way down the Wellington Straight. Well, up front, Palmowski still leading from Fatigue, the gap 0.8 of a second. Feldmeyer in that third place, under threat from Nina Gaidman, but Nina Gaidman currently in fourth place, backed by Altina. ...versus Ava Dobson. Ella Lloyd, of course, having lost out a little bit from the early stages, and then it is still Rachel Robertson tucked in behind. She's in seventh place, but Natalia Granada is definitely putting the pressure on. Let's go back to see how Alicia Palmowski is getting on, and she's doing a great job, but she's not escaping completely at this stage from Chiara Fatigue. No, Fatigue's holding on. Alicia has pulled a little bit more of a gap. It was down about 0.4 of a second at some point, so we can see Alicia trying to move out to disrupt the tow for Fatigue behind her, but front two having a good gap, but again, still from third place of Feldmeyer, and it's a little bit stalemate now. They'll just be thinking, right, we just want to keep in our positions, bring it home in one piece, whereas those further back have got a bit more of a battle on their hands. We're on board with Rachel Robertson looking back at Natalia Granada, and, yes, some elbows out racing from Rachel Robertson this weekend. I think actually she's had probably one of her best weekends so far this year in terms of racing, as Rachel didn't qualify, or had one of her great qualifyings, was a little bit at the mercy of track limit infringements during the first part of qualifying, but put it all together on a second set where it mattered, so a good weekend for Robertson. Yes, it is, but it's not looking quite so good as it was yesterday when she had that fourth place, but mind you, there are more points, of course, on offer in this main feature race that we are enjoying. Now, just looking at Megan Bruce there, she's down in ninth place again, which is where she was yesterday, but she is being pressured by Peyton Westcote, who has a lot of talent. She's with the Prima team, backed by Mercedes, and definitely closing in a little bit. Alva Larsson is still there, having had a bit of a tough time for a while. She's now holding on to that 11th place, and Esme Kosterman is currently in 12th place, having started down in 15th on the grid, but also keeping the pressure on here. We are on lap nine out of 13, so we're getting into the latter parts of this now. Track temperatures still are about 27, so still a little cooler than they had yesterday evening when they were racing at around 6pm, going out for an earlier morning start at Silverstone on the feature race here, but the grip level is obviously very good, even though it's a little bit cloudier than it had been. Yeah, we can see there's actually about three groups of racing. Arguably, the middle group from Felbermayr down to Granada is the closest one, as we see battles going on further behind. Megan Bruce trying to do the move on Westcott there, and Westcott sends it around the outside, but does run wide, and Megan Bruce is holding on to that position for ninth place. Yeah, absolutely. That's one that she's now lost. There is some investigation going into Westcott as well under the safety car period. There is Susie Wolfe, Managing Director of F1 Academy, and talking about how this is all going. I remember commentating on her when she was driving a Formula 1 car here at Silverstone. She tested for Williams, the practice session for Williams here at Silverstone, and she now runs F1 Academy as they bring these young female racers into single-seater racing and try and give them the chance to climb all the way up. Yeah, and as we saw, actually, the front shot of Megan Bruce's car, she's got damage to her front nose cone there, which you can see the wing looks pretty much in place, but just the front tip of the nose, she must have had contact with someone. So we saw going through Maggots and Beckett's, the car was a little bit loose, but so far, so good, as long as nothing else fails on the front wing. Absolutely, far so good, as you say. Yeah, that's interesting to look at. That's a great picture, as you can see that little bit of damage. Let's have a look at the incident here. So you're on board with Megan Bruce, just as the safety car was really, ah, easily done, I suppose, because they all suddenly slowed down before they went. Yes, yeah, and the rules are, once the safety car lights go out, there shouldn't really be any accelerating, braking, any weaving or anything like that. So, yeah, again, you know, these drivers are so new to racing in general, and safety car restarts can catch you out like that. We've all been guilty of getting caught out when we're trying to generate grip in our tyres and the car in front checks up. So, yeah, hopefully no further damage coming from that car, but we can see as we look back to Westcott, she's definitely gaining on the Wellington Straight. She's going to try and get the cutback, I imagine, on the exit of here into Luffield. And Megan Bruce under some increasing pressure there as Alba Larsson also comes in to the play. Yeah, Alba Larsson with Ferrari backing and with MT, she has definitely closed up a little bit more. The 17-year-old from Denmark. But whether she can do this, with that damage on the front, I'm quite impressed that Megan Bruce is managing to fend off at this stage and still managing to hold on to this spot. And it is in the points, but it would be nice for her to be able to move up a little bit more. But she's not very close, of course, to Natalia Granada, who's now in eighth place. Nearly side-by-side again. But Larsson didn't quite manage to make that work. But get a toe, as you come down another long straight here. It is sometimes an opportunity, but of course you're not braking hard into the right-hander that then comes up. Yeah, and actually we can see that Bruce has got a little bit of extra space now because Larsson has been quite increasingly on the back of Westcott. So a bit of pressure being put on her, although now they've gone through Stowe. It's kind of stalemate again with the gaps between the three cars. And as you say, the damage on the front of Bruce's car shouldn't really affect the aero too much because actually the front wing looks pretty strong and stable where it's meant to be. So even so, it will be playing on her mind. You know, when you have a bump with another car, you'll be wondering what damage there is. And it was a fairly hefty bump. You know, it nearly lifted Larsson up off the floor. And we see here, actually, Batigue is looking pretty quick on some of the laps with Tomoschki. So we think we actually have a five-second time penalty has come in for Kosterman for the safety car infringement. So, yeah, not good for Kosterman. No, that isn't good for Kosterman. But she is down in 12th place. So, yeah, five-second penalty is not actually going to affect the points that she could be scoring. Now you get confirmation of the five-second penalty for Esmee Kosterman. And as you can see, she's got several racers behind her in a close level. So when she gets five seconds added, she will drop down quite a few places there. But up front, it is still Alicia Tomoschki, the British racer, 19 years old, who is totally in control and has put together a very impressive first part of this season. Remember, coming up to half way. Oh, another damaged front wing. That's Esmee Kosterman. Yeah, that's not going to help around here. You know, you really rely on your front left being able to deal with the high-speed corners, especially coming into Maggotts and Becketts there. You know, high-speed corners of Stowe, of Copse, of Luffield. We're looking to make sure that the car's going to turn and rotate for you as you want. Only a couple of laps to go, so she'll have to manage that. And as we say, the time penalty that she has anyway, she will drop down to the back of the field. Still a very impressive job by Chiara Battic, running in second place at the moment. The wild card entry. And chequered flag is becoming soon. We've got England rugby player, Elie Kilder, the MBE, who is going to be handing out that chequered flag, which is fun to see. We're not quite there yet, but as I mentioned, it is impressive to see Chiara Battic still running in second place. She was actually selected as an F1 Academy Discover Your Drive carter, because she was a carter, and she, in the Champions of the Future Academy programme, she was runner-up in the OKN category in 2025. So there's no doubt that F1 Academy is helping young people really get opportunities and getting her the wild card this weekend. There she is in second place. It is working extremely well, and you've got to think she may well be a full-time player next year. Yeah, definitely. And other drivers have been part of the Discover Your Drive. We've got Alicia, Megan Bruce, Natalia Granada and our wild card this weekend. So it's good to see that F1 Academy is not only creating opportunities on the circuit, but also, when you go into the paddock, you see there's lots of other opportunities to build community within the sport. It's not just drivers that are able to have an entry into motorsport. It's those in mechanics and strategy. We see Emma Felbermaier and Nina Gaidman there. Emma's looking a little bit worried on Nina Gaidman. She's only a point six behind her, and you can see her trying to break that slipstream to prevent any overtake from happening. Absolutely. And they are second and third in the championship at the moment, too, Alicia Palmowski. So Felbermaier is quite a few points ahead of Nina Gaidman, actually. Nina Gaidman is a bit more under threat from a lot of others who are very close behind her. For example, Megan Bruce is only one point behind her coming into this race, and Wescott was only two points behind, and Matilda Pax only a couple of points. So for Nina Gaidman, with the Alpine backing, it really is important for her to try and score more points. But finding a way past Emma Felbermaier, who is second in the championship, it does seem funny that the order that we've got on the track at the moment, apart from our wildcard, so our wildcard entry is running second, but of those top four, it is the top three in the championship who are all racing out there right now. Black and white for Alva Larsson, failing to follow race director's instructions. So black and white means be careful. Don't get yourself into more trouble. Yes, and actually what would be good if this stays in the order that it is, it will be first wildcard on the podium if Batteague stays in second. Well, there is Alicja Palmoski and still under that threat from Chiara Batteague, but I'm not sure that the 16-year-old is going to be able to find a way through. But I am so impressed with what she has done here at Silverstone this weekend, taking that pole position for this main race, starting down in eighth on the reverse grid, and then she didn't make a good start. She was going to learn how to get off the line, but she still just got into the points yesterday. Today, she's done a really good job. Yes, she didn't make the best start, because Alicja Palmoski, with her experience, was able to get away a bit quicker. Yes, but definitely improvement from yesterday, and that's all she said she wanted to do coming into this weekend, was improve every single time she went out, and she set the bar pretty high from first practice with being the quickest on the circuit, was able to then replicate that in qualifying, and I think it's been an absolutely fantastic weekend for our wildcard driver. It has, yes. No, it's been absolutely superb, but you've got to say, for Alicja Palmoski, who is leading this series, and yesterday, Alicja Palmoski made up some places from the back and did a good job, but let's just keep an eye on Palmoski coming down to the final part of this. She is looking for her third victory of the year coming down into the last couple of stages. Very, very close, I have to say. Quite a fatigue, but I think Alicja Palmoski has done plenty here. Coming out of the final corner, her home race at Silverstone. This will be hugely emotional. Victory at Silverstone in F1 Academy goes to Alicja Palmoski, her third win of the season, continuing to build her championship lead Second place, wildcard entry, Kajala Bhatti. Third place, Emma Felbermayer, second in the championship, and fourth place, Nina Gaben. In fifth place, it's Ella Lloyd, Rachel Robertson in sixth place, Natalia Granada doing a good job in seventh, and Ava Dobson in eighth. But well done to Alicja Palmoski. Yes, fantastic race, and arguably the front two in a league of their own really disappeared fairly early on, and quite a commanding race from the both of them. Nothing too silly, and safety car restart, yes, Bhatti was wise to what Alicja was trying to do, was able to stay with her, and that's when the front two were able to pull that gap again. So, race 2 will give you wings, and you had a smooth flight to get your home race win. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Oh, my God. Chiara's a great little driver. She gave me some hell there. But yeah, thank you so much, guys. So, so grateful. This one's super special. So, thank you. Congratulations. You deserve this one. It does mean a huge amount to her. She's raced here at Silverstone in GB4 and in Ginetta Juniors. To win the F1 Academy feature race here at Silverstone is a major thing for her, her third win of the year, and to continue to build up the lead in the championship, that's very impressive. But well done to Chiara Bhatti. That is the best ever result we've had for a wildcard driver. It's the first toting finish for a wildcard driver. Well done, Chiara. Great job. Make a weekend. Well done. Patience there. Excellent job. Yeah, she should be feeling pretty pleased with her performance there. And I think, actually, it couldn't have gone better, really, for a wildcard entry. No doubt all eyes will be on her for a full-time drive in 2027. Yes, I think that will definitely happen. And it was very impressive to see what she could do. Well done to Emma Feldemeier as well. These fans are incredible. They were lined up already at 7am this morning, so a big thank you to the crowd as well. Yeah, indeed. This is the best Grand Prix, so it's nice also to win here. It's lovely for the Campos team, for Red Bull, of course, who back Alicja Palmowski. It's a great result for them too. And the Campos team, currently leading the team championships, they're going to be scoring very well, again, effectively here, thanks to her victory. But Hitech have got a podium at last because of their wildcard entry. I'm really pleased for the Hitech team that they've managed to get a podium because they've been through a bit of a tough time first year, last year, and then the beginning of this year was a bit tough, but suddenly they're really getting it together, as you say, with a new engineer as well. Definitely helping. Yeah, I think Hitech have got these cars dialed in perfectly for this weekend here. And you saw that really from free practice. The cars just looked absolutely planted on the road, whereas some of the other teams, potentially the cars just sliding around a little bit too much. And it was nice to hear on the radio there, Alicja give congrats to her Red Bull Junior teammate, Batigue. And she really picks up on, actually, the crowd lining up at 7am. She's really taking everything in, which you've got to do on a race weekend like this. You've got to savour these moments because it's a fantastic opportunity to race at your home circuit in front of a crowd like this and to be able to win is something very special. It is very, very special indeed for her to be up on the podium in a few moments. It's going to be something to remember forever in her life. Well done to Alicja Palmoski and doing it in such a controlled and superb way. That start off the line, managing to fend off Chiara Batigue into the first corner and then just holding it all the way despite the pressure being on her. She just did it perfectly. Well done to Alicja Palmoski and she is continuing to build up her championship lead and to have British fans supporting here this weekend as well. Very, very special indeed. And now it's time to go and have a bit of a play. Yeah, this one will mean a lot to her. This is one of these results that you'll appreciate and look back with fond memories wherever her career takes her. And yeah, fantastic racing from all the drivers actually. Some really great battles all weekend up and down the pack. As you see, it gives Sarah Harrington a big hug there. Congrats from all the team and solidifying her championship fight even further. But Emma Felbermaier finishing in third place. That will also give some good points to her in trying to close the championship fight up to Palmoski. Yeah, and she's not closing it, but she's staying in it. That's the important thing, as you say. She hasn't managed to reduce the points, but it was 19 points before the race. It will just be into the 20s, but nonetheless, Emma Felbermaier staying in there, as you say, and that's what matters to a large extent. And she has been the only driver to score in every race that we've had so far this year. She's scored points in every race. Even Alicia hasn't managed on one occasion not to score points. But well done to her in this one. Let's just see. This was a good victory. Not by miles. It was quite a close pass at the beginning and she fended off Chiara Battic throughout. But well done to Alicia Palmoski, backed by Red Bull and with the Campos team that are really delivering superbly well at the moment. Great pictures there. Fantastic. Very proud too. And they will be celebrating and of course the fans here enjoying one of the early races at Silverstone today. And seeing a British winner in this race really makes it very, very special for them. And well done to, as I say, to the high-tech team as well for getting that second place. And the other of their high-tech entries, Rachel Robertson was down in sixth place in the end. Let's go on board and listen in. True. True, true, true. I was sad. Oh, wow. That's crazy. I thought... What was I going to say to Carissa? I nearly broke it to you in the restart. I was trying to get it right. You had a good restart. It was too good for my liking. Yeah, probably. It's so long from the restart until you break in T3. So I was just sat there looking in my mirror going, she's coming, she's coming. And then you were trying to break the tour, but I was like, OK, it doesn't have anything. She gave up at the end. I was trying to just get out the slipstream, and she just didn't even try to follow. Whatever. It's not that effective, is it? No. Really? No. That was a good chat, and interesting what Alicia was saying. That's her mum there. She was saying that restart, actually, Fiora Patek had done a really good job, and she had, hadn't she? Yeah, definitely. She read it well, and it kind of was going to happen at that point. Alicia left it so late that she was going to have to go at some point. Actually, potentially going on the entry of Vail would have given chance to catch Chiara out, as you see Ellie Kildon there wave the chequered flag at the end of the race. And it's great to see all these different athletes from various sports. We had footballers yesterday handing out the trophies, rugby today, and great to see the crossover from all the different women's sports and good to see F1 Academy getting a similar kind of attention as well. Definitely. Yeah, no, it's great stuff. And to be at an event like this, and you're racing, it's a huge event, of course, but it also, for young drivers who are trying to build their professional talents, and to be at an event like this is actually a very useful thing to learn what it's all about. Yeah, definitely. You know, we don't mess about at Formula One weekends, and there are lots of things you have to do, lots of protocols. If you saw some infringements, for example, for safety car infringements, which I imagine will be weaving once the lights have gone out, which in the driver's notes before states the rules. Absolutely. So we are getting ready for the podium and to be able to celebrate Emma Feldermayer, first off, coming up into third position. Very, very important weekend for her here at Silverstone. She's done a really great job. A win and a third place. Second place goes to the wildcard, first ever wildcard driver to get on the podium at any of the F1 Academy races. Well done to Chiara Battig, only 16 years old, from Switzerland. But the winner today is the championship leader, the 19-year-old British racer, Alicja Palmowski. And it is time for Alicja Palmowski to celebrate the national anthem. Congratulations. A very emotional time for her. Now handing out the winner's trophy, Malala Yousafzai. And she is an education activist, TV film producer, internationally recognised for her support of education of women and children. So she hands out the trophy to Alicja Palmowski. Second place being handed out by Ella Toon, England lioness of Manchester United, women's super league club player. And then it's going back to third place from Malala Yousafzai. And she is very congratulating to her as well. There we are. That is our top three here in the feature race at Silverstone. And it's time for them to enjoy. And Alicja Palmowski has taken the win. She is leading the championship by 30 points now. 30-point advantage over Emma Falvermeyer, despite Emma getting onto the podium this time. And Nina Gaben is still in third place. But Alicja Palmowski leading the series, winning at Silverstone. What a wonderful day this is for her. It's fantastic. And we saw shots of her mum underneath the podium. An emotional day for Alicja and the family. You'd think these girls would learn to shut their eyes when they spray the champagne. Each time it's always, I can't see, it's in my eyes. But yeah, fantastic scenes. Brilliant. Ever the joker is Palmowski. Really great to enjoy. And we will be, no doubt, in the future watching Chiara Battic. She will be racing in other single-seaters through this year, of course, the Swiss racer. And then I think it's very likely that she will appear in F1 Academy next year. Let's see what happens. But she delivered a superb job getting second place in this race. So let's have a look at the full order then from this feature race here at Silverstone. The second and final race of the weekend for them here. Alicja Palmowski winning from Chiara Battic and Emma Felbermaier. It was Nina Gaben in fourth, ahead of Emma Lloyd. Rachel Robertson in sixth. Natalia Granada did a good job up to seventh. Ava Dobson in eighth. Megan Bruce and Alba Larsson were the last point scorers. Remember, they all score down into tenth position. So Alba Larsson got the final point for that tenth place, backed by Ferrari. Peyton Westcote was eleventh, ahead of Mathilde Pat. Jan Jacquet in thirteenth place, ahead of Lisa Billard. Esme Kosman and Kayleigh Countryman. And we had two DNFs after that incident. Rafaela Ferreira and Ella Stevens, unfortunately, did not make it to the end. The 2026 F1 Academy Series has reached its halfway point. The next race at Zandvoort in August, followed by two more rounds in Austin and Las Vegas in the United States. Let's see what happens then. Thank you for joining us. And goodbye from Abbey Eaton and from me, Ben Edwards. See you next time.