Chloe Chambers has her eyes on the F1 Academy Drivers Championship after clinching her maiden win in Race 2 in Barcelona, hoping to continue her ‘momentum’ to the top of the tables.
The Haas-nominated driver snatched the lead from Championship leader Abbi Pulling off the line, getting a great launch to lead into the first corner.
Chambers led the race from start to finish, finishing nearly seven seconds ahead of Pulling in second.
“Getting into the points lead in the standings will be a really tough feat,” Chambers told Motorsport Week.
“Abbi’s got quite a gap to second place but I’m kind of chipping away at it one by one, just kind of continuing with this momentum and seeing where we end up.”
Her maiden win came after securing a podium finish in Race 1 yesterday, in which she shared her hopes to gain her first win.
Chambers continued: “I said yesterday that I just needed to work on my start and then from there, everything else should be solved. I came away with a win in the end.
“The pace was always good. Of course, it’s a lot easier being out front, so I was able to kind of use that and pull away from the drivers behind to create a pretty sizable lead and get the fastest lap as well.
As a majority of the grid struggled with tyre degradation during the race, Chambers used her quick launch to gap the rest of the field.
After throwing her Campos Racing car off the line, she blocked Pulling’s attempt to regain track position and led the race from start to finish.
“That was probably one of the best starts I’ve ever done in my life. I’m happy to have been able to perform in that aspect and use it to my advantage to get up into the lead,” Chambers said.
“It was really nice and early and I got to just drive my own race from there on.
Her victory secured a win on home soil for the Spanish team Campos Racing, continuing their success in Barcelona.
“I think the team is very happy with the performance, they’re off getting podiums and winning in F3 and F2 so I was happy to add one more to the tally in F1 Academy.
“Yeah, it was amazing seeing all the Haas team members there, Ayao Komatsu was there as well to congratulate me.
“That just shows the kind of support the F1 Academy has from the F1 teams and it’s really great to see.”
Chambers looks ahead to Round 4 of F1 Academy in Zandvoort, between the 23-25th of August, hoping to inch closer to the Championship lead.