Palmowski Wins Zandvoort Feature Race, Extends Championship Lead

Alisha Palmowski did what she’s been doing all season: won when it mattered most. This morning she took the Zandvoort Feature Race with a controlled, front to back drive, stretching her championship lead right before the series jumps across the Atlantic. It wasn’t an easy race Alba Larsen sat glued to her rear wing for nearly half of it but when the moment called for it, Palmowski delivered.

A three-wide fight for the lead

Palmowski got away cleanly from pole, but Larsen gave her no breathing room, not even into Turn 1. Natalia Granada, coming off a Reverse Grid Race to forget the day before, threw herself into the mix straightaway and went three wide into the first corner. The Spaniard had to back out, clipped Nina Gademan’s front wing in the process, and the Dutch driver seized the opening to move into provisional third.

With that sorted, the real fight took shape: Palmowski up front, Larsen hunting for a gap. On lap 2 she went for it around the outside of Turn 1 a brave move but couldn’t make it stick. No surprise there; the Ferrari-backed car was simply too far back for the pass to land.

The gap shrinks, then opens right back up

Here’s where this race got interesting. Larsen didn’t let up: by lap 3 the gap was down to 0.4 seconds, and by lap 6 it had shrunk to 0.3. Over the radio, Larsen’s engineer was told Palmowski was struggling. Was the upset coming?

No. Just as Larsen got closest, Palmowski answered with the fastest lap of the entire race a 1:37.805 on lap 10 and the gap ballooned past a second in one go. From there Larsen never got that close again; she found herself four tenths off Palmowski’s pace at points, and the margin grew to 1.4 seconds. By the closing laps, Palmowski was managing a 2.3-second cushion, essentially cruising to the win.

What was happening further back

While the title fight was playing out up front, the midfield had its own battle worth watching. Ella Lloyd had been on a strong run and closed right onto the back of Rachel Robertson, down to just two tenths she tried around the outside, couldn’t make it stick, but didn’t back off. A few laps later it was Payton Westcott coming for her, and Lloyd defended hard to keep eighth. Behind them, Megan Bruce led a six-car train stretching from sixth to twelfth, all trading places lap after lap.

The takeaway from this Feature Race? In F1 Academy, nobody gives anything away, not even when the story up front looks all but settled.

Podium and beyond

Larsen banked her second podium of the weekend, finishing eight seconds clear of Gademan in third. Granada, who’d had a rough Reverse Grid Race just a day earlier, fought back to fourth a recovery that says a lot about her mentality. Fifth went to Emma Felbermayr, Palmowski’s closest title rival, who now watches the championship gap keep growing in the wrong direction.

For Zoe Florescu, the Dutch wildcard racing in front of her home crowd this weekend, it was a tough way to close things out: 18th and last, after being disqualified from qualifying as well. Not the home weekend she’d pictured.

Is Palmowski’s lead already enough to wrap up the title before Austin, or does Felbermayr still have a window to turn things around? There are races left, but not many.

Results — Feature Race, 2026 Dutch Grand Prix

Source: Motorsport Week