Westcott Wins F1 Academy Zandvoort Reverse Grid Race After Florescu’s Qualifying DQ

Payton Westcott won the F1 Academy Zandvoort Reverse Grid Race from a pole she only had because Zoe Florescu was thrown out of Qualifying for an engine lubricant breach, and she still had to go and do the job from there. Seventeen laps, two Safety Car restarts, a race lead she never gave up. Alba Larsen took her first F1 Academy podium in second, closing right up to Westcott in the closing stages before running out of laps. Nina Gademan completed a Zandvoort double podium for MP Motorsport in third, at her home event. Esmee Kosterman scored her first points of the season in fourth. Emma Felbermayr crossed the line eighth but a five-second penalty for contact with Rachel Robertson dropped her to thirteenth, handing Ava Dobson the final point instead.

Key Points: F1 Academy Zandvoort Reverse Grid Race

• Westcott wins from pole, a place she only had after Florescu’s Qualifying disqualification for an engine lubricant breach, leading every lap for her maiden F1 Academy victory and adding the fastest lap bonus point
• Larsen takes her first F1 Academy podium in second, gaining five places and closing right up to Westcott before the laps ran out
• Gademan completes a double podium for MP Motorsport in third, at her home event in the Netherlands
• Kosterman scores her first points of the season in fourth
• Two Safety Cars: Lap 2 for Granada’s crash into the wall at Turn 3, Lap 9 for the Jacquet and Billard collision
• Felbermayr crosses the line eighth but a five-second penalty for contact with Robertson drops her to thirteenth, promoting Dobson to the final point in eighth

A Grid Rewritten Before Lights Out

Westcott’s win started with a scrutineering sheet, not a lap time. Zoe Florescu, who had qualified seventh, was disqualified after her Hitech car’s engine lubricant was found not to meet the specifications set out in the Engine Manual. Everyone who qualified behind her moved up a place. Megan Bruce was promoted to seventh. Westcott, originally ninth in Qualifying, was promoted to eighth and therefore inherited pole for the Reverse Grid Race.

None of that hands you a race win. Westcott still had to get the start right, manage two Safety Car restarts, and hold off a driver who spent the closing laps right in her mirrors. She did all three.

The Start and the First Safety Car

Westcott got a textbook getaway, immediately putting a gap between herself and Bruce. Behind them, Robertson and Gademan went side by side before Gademan came out ahead of both Robertson and Bruce to move into second. Alisha Palmowski, the standings leader, stalled off the line and had to rejoin from the back. Mathilda Paatz also had an issue at the start.

On Lap 2, Natalia Granada hit the wall trying to pass Emma Felbermayr into Turn 3, bringing out the first Safety Car while her car was recovered. Westcott held the lead through the restart on Lap 4. Behind her, Larsen, Bruce and Felbermayr went three-wide for third into Turn 1, Felbermayr coming out on top with Larsen fifth and Bruce back to sixth. Kosterman was straight into the fight too, following her MP Motorsport teammate Larsen’s move through to pick up a place of her own.

By Lap 6, Westcott had 1.6 seconds on Gademan and kept extending it. Larsen was still working her way forward, and pulled off a brave move around the outside into Turn 1 to take third off Robertson. A second Safety Car followed on Lap 9 after Jade Jacquet and her teammate Lisa Billard collided, leaving Jacquet in the gravel. Westcott’s restart was clean again. Larsen locked up into Turn 1 but recovered to pull off the move on Gademan for second regardless.

Larsen’s Charge to a Maiden Podium

Larsen gained five places across the race and did most of the damage after the second restart. Straight out of the final restart she caught Westcott up ahead and had a look at the race lead itself before turning her attention back to holding second. Felbermayr and Robertson were still trading paint behind her, Robertson eventually getting pushed onto the gravel and handing the place to Kosterman.

Ella Lloyd was doing similar work further back, climbing from P11 into sixth before finding her way past Robertson into fifth. Larsen’s final margin to Westcott was 1.807 seconds. Close enough to matter, too far to change it. Westcott added the fastest lap bonus point to her afternoon as well, the only driver in the field to break 1:39.

Gademan’s Home Podium

Gademan’s third gave MP Motorsport a double podium at her home event in the Netherlands. She had done the early work herself, coming through Robertson and Bruce in the opening laps to sit second before Larsen’s late move on Lap 9 dropped her to third. She held that spot to the flag for her team’s second podium finish of the afternoon.

Felbermayr’s Penalty Decides the Final Point

Felbermayr crossed the line eighth, but it didn’t stay that way. A five-second penalty for contact with Robertson, the incident that put the PUMA driver onto the gravel and opened the door for Kosterman, dropped Felbermayr to thirteenth in the final classification. Ava Dobson inherited the last point on offer in eighth as a result. Kosterman took fourth for her first points of the season, ahead of Lloyd, Robertson and Bruce.

Westcott’s win comes off the back of a rough stretch. Fourteenth in Silverstone’s Reverse Grid Race, eleventh in the Feature Race, then two third-place podiums either side of that in Shanghai and Montreal. She rated the win itself as much about proving something to herself as the result on the sheet, and Zandvoort moves her up to fourth in the Drivers’ Championship.

Reverse Grid Race Classification: F1 Academy Zandvoort 2026

Coffee Corner Take

Westcott’s pole came from a scrutineering bay, not a lap time. It didn’t win her the race. What she did with it is the actual story: covering Bruce off the line, managing two clean restarts, then holding a charging Larsen at arm’s length for the whole second half. That’s a driver doing the job in front of her, regardless of how she got there.

She has needed this. Fourteenth and eleventh at Silverstone either side of two third-place finishes is a season that hasn’t settled into a shape yet. A maiden win, lights to flag, at a track that doesn’t forgive a bad restart, is exactly what she needed.

Larsen’s five places gained is the number that will get lost in Westcott’s headline, and it shouldn’t be. A maiden podium built entirely in the race itself, through two restarts and with a genuine look at the lead thrown in. That was a proper race-built podium, not one inherited through attrition.

Gademan on the podium at her home race is the kind of result that means more than the points alone suggest. MP Motorsport leave Zandvoort with two cars on the rostrum, and a crowd of her own fans got to see one of them get there.

Felbermayr’s penalty is a reminder of how thin the margins are through the midfield here. Eighth on the road, thirteenth on the sheet. Dobson picks up the final point after the penalty.

Palmowski’s Feature Race pole, after stalling out of this one, is its own story. A standings leader who has now had to recover from the back once this weekend, starting the next race from the front. Zandvoort has already scrambled the expected order twice before Sunday’s Feature Race.

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