Pulling heads Formula E all-female test at Jarama

F1 Academy points leader Abbi Pulling finished fastest in the all-female Formula E test at the Jarama circuit on Friday.

The all-electric championship held a test exclusively for female drivers with all 11 Formula E teams required to field at least one driver, as 18 in total sampled the new Gen3 Evo machines.

Pulling, who can clinch the F1 Academy title at the next round in Qatar which would give her a fully-funded drive in the UK’s GB3 Championship next season, posted a 1m30.889s inside the final 60 minutes of the three-hour session.

The outing was her first time in a Formula E car, and after just one session her best lap left her just 4.5 seconds behind the quickest time from the four-day pre-season test, which was set by Jaguar’s Mitch Evans on Friday morning.

Three-time W Series champion Jamie Chadwick finished second, her final effort leaving her 0.320s behind Pulling.

The 26-year-old Briton, who also completed the most laps during the session with 39, previously tested Formula E machinery with Jaguar during the 2020 rookie test and will conduct the same test next season.

McLaren’s Bianca Bustamante became the first driver to dip below the 1m32s barrier during the second hour, and the F1 Academy driver finished the session third, 0.826s behind Pulling.

Miki Koyama also improved with her final effort to move into fourth for Lola, from Sauber Academy driver Lena Buhler (Mahindra) as Beitske Visser completed the top six for DS Penske.

Running in the final hour was curtailed after F1 Academy driver Jessica Edgar found the barriers in Jean-Eric Vergne’s DS Penske at Turn 3, which brought out a red flag as the car was recovered to the pits.

Simona de Silvestro returned to Formula E action having competed in 12 races between 2014-2016 during the Gen1 era with Andretti.

The Swiss-Italian, who has been a reserve driver for Porsche in Formula E, was driving for customer team Kiro but only completed six laps due to technical problems.

Jaguar’s second driver, Lilou Wadoux was the only driver unable to complete a lap at all as problems with her seat meant she was unable to take to the circuit.