Ciconte scores maiden points in Jeddah
Australia’s Joanne Ciconte scored her first F1 Academy points in the second round at Saudi Arabia last weekend.
Ciconte got the breakthrough with a ninth place finish in the feature race of the Jeddah event.
This was enough for her to rise to 12th in the standings, just one place ahead of fellow Aussie Aiva Anagnostiadis, who got points in the Shanghai opener.
On Saturday she finished 11th despite suffering a wild airborne moment.
It is a boost for the MP Motorsport 16-year-old after impressing in qualifying in China, but the races did not go her way.
Anagnostiadis fought hard in Saudi Arabia, but could only manage 14th and 17th.
Up front Chloe Chambers set the pace, taking pole with a 2:04.320, three tenths clear of Doriane Pin as Ciconte and Anagnostiadis were 11th and 16th respectively.
In the reverse grid opener, McLaren backed driver Ella Lloyd emerged victorious from the front row.
She got the jump on teammate Emma Felbermayr, who ended up falling to ninth.
But it was still tense at the front of the field as the top three also including Maya Weug and Alisha Palmowski ran nose to tail to the finish.
Only 0.176s was the difference at the chequered flag with Lloyd holding on.
The tight racing carried on in Race 2 where Maya Weug and Chambers went head to head.
The defining moment of the race arrived on Lap 3 when Weug and Chambers were wheel to wheel.
But Chambers forced off Weug, which resulted in a 5s penalty for the Red Bull Ford driver.
Chambers held track position for the rest of the race, but the penalty decided the race with Weug prevailing.
Pin was not close enough to demote Chambers any further and she held onto second.
F1 Academy follows F1 to Miami on May 2-4.
Photo by Manuel Eletto – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images
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