Emma Felbermayr capitalised on a late error by Ferrari’s Alba Larsen to seize her first win of the 2026 F1 ACADEMY season, beating Alisha Palmowski to the chequered flag by just two tenths.
Felbermayr joined Larsen in sailing past the polesitting Red Bull Racing driver at lights out and comfortably defended second place, allowing her to later inherit the lead when the Dane lost control on the Safety Car restart and dropped down the order.
Although she consistently stayed close to the frontrunner and launched a brave challenge on the final lap, Palmowski was ultimately unable to reclaim top spot and settled for second place to secure her first podium of the season.
Just behind her was Mercedes’ Payton Westcott, who rounded out a strong debut weekend with a calm drive to the podium to establish herself as the top rookie in the series’ opening round.
Some of her fellow first-year drivers weren’t quite as fortunate, with separate incidents between Esmee Kosterman and Jade Jacquet, and Wild Card driver Shi Wei and Rachel Robertson bringing their day to an early close.
After a commanding win in Race 1, Nina Gademan added to her points tally with P4 as she crossed the line ahead of McLaren’s Ella Lloyd and Racing Bulls driver Rafaela Ferreira. Lisa Billard was next in the order as she narrowly beat Larsen, who fought back to score after her error at the Safety Car restart.
Tag Heuer-backed Megan Bruce was ninth and Ava Dobson rounded out the points finishers in Shanghai.
Following confirmation that the scheduled second round in Jeddah will not take place in April, F1 ACADEMY will return to action in Montreal from 22-24 May. In the meantime, you can find an in-depth report and reactions from Race 2 in Shanghai on the official F1 ACADEMY website here.