Ella Lloyd moved into the top three positions of the FIA F1 Academy standings after another podium performance — her sixth of the season — on the streets of Singapore.
Returning to the scene of her F1 Academy debut, as a wildcard entry at the penultimate round of the 2024 series, allowed Lloyd a welcome degree of familiarity with the circuit, although the Marina Bay layout continued to prove tricky for the entire field with the event largely being held at night, under floodlights, and in typical Singaporean heat and humidity. Keeping things clean in the sole free practice session allowed the Welsh driver to get 15 precious laps under her belt ahead of the late evening qualifying session, where she improved one place, to fourth fastest on the timesheets, and trimmed the margin to the more experienced drivers ahead of her, despite constantly flirting with the unforgiving walls lining the circuit as she lowered her best time on her final lap.
Placing fourth in qualifying meant that Lloyd would line her #20 Rodin Motorsport Dallara up in fifth position for the weekend's opening race, thanks to the F1 Academy's policy of reversing the top eight drivers in the order. The race, delayed for barrier repairs following an incident in the preceding race, was a frenetic affair twice interrupted by the safety car as the walls claimed unwary victims. Lloyd again showed her composure to rise one place and take the chequered flag in fourth, only for a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits — compounded by the safety car compressing the field — to drop the McLaren protégé back to an unrepresentative seventh in the final results.
“P4 in qualifying wasn’t too bad, although we knew there was still some pace for us to find in the car,” Lloyd confirmed, “but it was quick enough in race one to be running fourth the whole way through. I tried to make a move on P3, but got pushed towards the wall, which was… unfortunate — as was the penalty for running wide at turn one on the opening lap, so gaining third place probably wouldn’t have made much difference to my final result.”
Knowing what she and the #20 were capable of buoyed Lloyd ahead of Sunday's race, where she would start on the outside of row two. Just as she had on her way to taking three second-place finishes in Canada earlier in the season, the 20-year-old found herself going three abreast into the opening corner but, as she had each time in Montreal, held her nerve to emerge ahead of her rivals and now in third position.
Maintaining the place through the heart of the race, Lloyd's hopes of a podium finish were only really threatened in the final few laps, when forecast rain arrived and presented the remaining drivers with the dilemma of whether to pit for grooved tyres or risk staying out on slicks in the hope of surviving to the chequered flag. Along with the two leaders, Lloyd chose the riskier option, but drove with aplomb to bring the papaya-and-black Rodin machine home third overall, and just half a second away from finishing as runner-up as the two leaders duelled following the withdrawal of a late safety car.
“I had a good start and managed to get into P3 at turn one — although we were battling from turn one to turn five, where I got a run around the outside and down the straight to finally make the move stick,” Lloyd smiled. “From there, I was able to hold third position for rest of the race, although things did get a bit tricky when it started to rain. We just needed to stay out as there was only one lap left to complete on the slicks and it was just about keeping it on track from there. Obviously, I was delighted to come away with a podium on what was a pretty positive weekend all round.”
Lloyd's podium, combined with results elsewhere, meant that she moved into third place in the overall standings, breaking the 100-point barrier for the season in the process. With one round, in Las Vegas next month, remaining on the calendar, there aren't enough points on offer for the Welsh driver to move any higher, and she will have to be at her very best around another quick street circuit to defend her two-point advantage over fourth place.
With no further rounds in the British F4 she was contesting in parallel to her F1 Academy commitments, the final race of Lloyd’s 2025 programme will come at the F1 Academy finale in Las Vegas over the weekend of 20-22 November.
