Caos en la Reverse Grid: Palmowski se cala y Westcott aprovecha para ganar en casa de Gademan

Sometimes fortune has to be earned too. Payton Westcott claimed her first F1 Academy victory in the Reverse Grid Race at Zandvoort, but the story of this win starts before the lights even went out: the Prema Racing driver inherited pole after wildcard Zoe Florescu was disqualified, and she made sure not to waste it.

A gifted pole, a race won on merit

Florescu had qualified seventh, which under the reverse-grid format would have put her directly on the front row. The disqualification reshuffled the entire starting order, and Westcott ended up inheriting first place. What she did with that gift afterward, though, was no accident: she controlled the start, held off early pressure from Megan Bruce, and never looked back.

Luck, then? Partly. But turning a gifted pole into a dominant win especially in a category where one mistake can cost you the entire race is credit nobody can take away from her.

Palmowski’s disaster

If this race had a big loser, it was Alisha Palmowski. The championship leader stalled at the start and dropped straight to the back of the pack, in a weekend where she needed to score, not lose ground. She finished 12th, a result that stings with so little of the calendar left to close out the title.

With tomorrow’s Feature Race still to come, and Palmowski starting from pole in that one, she has room to recover. But today’s setback wasn’t small.

Yellow flag for Jacquet

The race hit a tense moment on lap 8, when Jade Jacquet, in her rookie F1 Academy season, went into the barriers and brought out the Safety Car. Nothing serious for the driver, but it did end her race for the day and gave the rest of the field a breather in what had been a tightly packed pack.

At the restart, Alba Larsen capitalized on someone else’s mistake to move into second, setting her sights directly on the win before the gap to Westcott settled at just under a second.

Home podium for Gademan

Nina Gademan rounded out the podium at her home race third place, marking her third podium of the 2026 season. Racing with the pressure of a home crowd is no small thing, and the Dutch driver answered with a solid, mistake free drive throughout.

Behind the top three, Esmee Kosterman posted what’s her best result in F1 Academy so far, finishing fourth in her first appearance as a full-time driver at her own home circuit. Results like that are the ones that start to define careers.

The fight for points

Ella Lloyd finished fifth, with Robertson and Bruce rounding out the top seven. Further back, Dobson, Countryman and Billard closed out the points in a tight finish, separated by mere tenths the kind of racing where every position gets fought for right to the flag.

Zoe Florescu, without the pole she’d lost before the start, still finished 11th, showing real pace despite the administrative blow. Alisha Palmowski closed out the day in 12th, and Emma Felbermayr finished 13th, a flat result for someone who’s been fighting up front in recent rounds.

Jacquet and Natalia Granada didn’t make it to the checkered flag, both out before completing the distance.

What’s next

Tomorrow at 10:30 local time, the Feature Race gets underway to close out the Zandvoort weekend. Palmowski starts that one from pole a direct chance to make up for today. The question is whether the Reverse Grid mistake stays behind her, or whether the weight of the championship starts to show at every start. With Larsen, Gademan and Westcott all showing real pace this weekend, the title fight is far from settled.

Results — Reverse Grid Race, 2026 F1 Academy Dutch GP

Source: F1Academy.com