In Yas Marina, Maya Weug ended the 2024 season with a win to reach her goal of finishing third in the championship. Aurelia Nobels scored more points.
Maya Weug did brilliantly in the final round of the F1 Academy season, winning the last race at the Yas Marina circuit. She had been aiming for a win with great determination, having missed out on one up to that point for a variety of reasons. Having qualified seventh, Weug finished Race 1 in that position, before improving to fifth in Race 2. To make up for a race cancelled the previous weekend in Qatar, a third race was added to the timetable and this delivered Maya’s longed for victory after a fight up the order as well as third place in the championship.
A great ending. In Race 3, Weug moved up to third by the end of the opening lap, following Hamda Al Qubaisi attentively before overtaking her for second. Her pitwall crew told her not to take any unnecessary risks, as second place would be enough for her Prema team to win the teams’ title. Weug took this on board before choosing the right moment to accelerate past the champion elect, Abbi Pulling. She then pulled out a comfortable lead which she kept to the chequered flag. “It’s great to end the season with a win,” commented Maya. “It was a tense weekend for the whole team as we wanted to take the teams’ title and we did it. We managed to get the car well balanced and the pace confirmed it, as I was able to do some great lap times when running in clean air. Race 3 was a bit chaotic, with a lot of overtaking attempts that had to be well managed to get past Hamda and Abbi, but in the end, everything went well. I’m very pleased about the win and especially for playing my part in Prema taking the title. Starting sixth, I hadn’t expected to win, which made this even nicer. It was a perfect end to the season.”
Summary. Weug finished the season in third place, with 194 points. Aurelia Nobels finished 12th on 29 points, in a very close contest that saw ninth and 13th places separated by only 6 points. She was just two points off tenth place, having scored in the first and third races in Abu Dhabi, coming home 11th in Race 2.