Bustamante finishes 7th, PREMA cops team championship in F1 Academy

MANILA, Philippines — Bianca Bustamante scored twice in three races to cap off her first year in the inaugural F1 Academy, good enough to finish seventh in the drivers standings.

As hostilities wrapped up in Austin over the weekend, Bustamante could not finish strong as she ended up out of the points in the final race of the year.

It meant that Amna Al Qubaisi, who finished P10 in the same race, edged the Filipina for sixth place in the drivers championship.

Al Qubaisi finished with 117 points, Bustamante ended up with 116.

Still, it was a good outing overall for the 18-year-old. During Race 1, Bustamante fell just short of a podium finish with a fourth place finish then bucked an unfortunate stall to begin Race 2.

Though unable to fight for the win, Bustamante fought back from P14 to P7 in just eight laps to finish smack in the points.

Bustamante’s points contributed to PREMA Racing’s team championship with her teammate Marta Garcia also being named the inaugural champion of the F1 Academy season.

Garcia formally claimed the championship in Race 1 when she held off Rodin Carlin’s Abbi Pulling.

She finished the season with 278 points, finishing out of the points only twice in the 21 races this year.

Bustamante and Garcia’s other teammate Chloe Chong was P14 in the standings with 25 points to her name.

Highlights of Bustamante’s season were her two race wins in Valencia and Monza.

Now, Bustamante begins the next chapter of her F1 Academy career with McLaren as she will be racing under ART Grand Prix next year.