The British and the American drivers dominated the qualifying session, securing the front row of the grid and achieving a double podium in Saturday's race. Unfortunately, Sunday's main race was cancelled due to torrential rain, dashing the hopes of Chambers and Palmowski. Ferreira returned to the points-paying positions after being hit by a rival at the start

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Campos Racing and its three drivers added more podium finishes to their tally in the 2025 F1 Academy season. The third round took place this weekend at the Miami International Autodrome, with the team from Alzira placing all three drivers among the front-runners in the standings. In fact, Chloe Chambers, driving the Tatuus in the colours of the Red Bull Ford Academy Programme, and Alisha Palmowski, with her single-seater in the livery of the Red Bull Racing Academy Programme, once again secured podium finishes for the third consecutive meeting. And this, despite the fact that an even greater reward was within reach, had Sunday’s race not been cancelled due to a formidable downpour. Chambers and Palmowski were set to start first and second in the main race. Brazilian Rafaela Ferreira returned to the points in the weekend’s only race with an eighth-place finish, recovering well after her Visa Cash App RB Academy car was hit by another driver early on. These results further solidify Campos Racing’s lead in the standings.

Friday featured two free practice sessions, rather than the usual single one, during which the Campos Racing drivers quickly found their pace. In the first session, Palmowski was second with a best time of 1m59.492s, while Chambers was fifth with a personal best of 1m59.683s. Ferreira placed twelfth in this initial outing. In the second session, local favorite Chambers climbed to second with a time of 1m58.824s, with Palmowski finishing eighth. Ferreira posted the 15th best time.

Saturday began with the qualifying session, where threatening dark clouds looming over the circuit prompted the drivers to rush out of the pits as soon as the light turned green. Under the intense pressure of having just one flying lap – as rain began falling almost immediately – Chambers and Palmowski proved the most effective. Chambers clocked a 2m00.458s lap to secure pole position – and the two bonus points – by just eighteen thousandths of a second over Palmowski, who was second. With heavy rain falling, no other driver could challenge them for the front row. Ferreira achieved her best qualifying result of the season, placing seventh with a lap of 2m01.673s.

For the afternoon’s reverse-grid race, with the top eight from qualifying flipped, Ferreira lined up second alongside Austria’s Emma Felbermayr. Palmowski and Chambers started seventh and eighth respectively. When the lights went out, Ferreira made a strong start and nearly got past Felbermayr. Unfortunately, Ella Lloyd braked far too late behind her and struck the left rear tyre of the Brazilian’s car. Although Ferreira rejoined the track, she dropped to seventh. On that opening lap, Chambers and Palmowski climbed to fourth and fifth. The safety car was deployed to clear the track after the Turn 1 incident. The race resumed on lap three, and shortly afterwards Palmowski overtook Chambers, taking over fourth. Up ahead, Felbermayr began to lose pace and positions, and by lap five, both Palmowski and Chambers had passed her. Palmowski then set her sights on Brazilian Aurelia Nobels and pulled off a superb overtake around the outside on lap six, just before the safety car reappeared. At the restart on lap ten, with only three laps remaining, Chambers mirrored Palmowski’s earlier move and passed Nobels at the exact same spot and in the same fashion. From there to the finish, Palmowski pushed leader Doriane Pin, trying to force an error. In fact, both Palmowski and Chambers were faster than Pin in the closing laps. Ultimately, under the checkered flag, Palmowski and Chambers crossed the line second and third. Ferreira, struggling with tyres that had been compromised by the earlier incident, finished eighth.

As mentioned earlier, Sunday’s race did not go ahead. Shortly before the formation lap, torrential rain began to fall, forcing the field to run several laps behind the safety car. With several drivers going off and spinning even under safety car conditions, race control decided to bring out the red flag after several minutes. Soon after, the race was officially cancelled.

In the drivers’ standings, Chambers sits third with 53 points, followed closely by Palmowski in fourth with 44. Ferreira is in tenth with nine points. As previously noted, Campos Racing extends its lead in the teams’ championship with a total of 106 points, twelve more than MP Motorsport.

The next round will also take place in North America, specifically in Montreal on 14–15 June, as part of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend.

Chloe Chambers (Campos Racing Driver in F1 Academy): “Positive week in Miami with a pole in qualifying and then P3 from P8 in the reverse grid race to add to the podiums this year. Race 2 was postponed due to excessive rain, which was definitely the right choice since we were aquaplaning even at low speeds. Disappointed, but hopefully we’ll have another chance at a future round to make up the race. Pace was strong and Miami once again put on a show. Thank you to all the fans who turned up to watch us, absolutely loved being back racing in the states at home!”

Alisha Palmowski (Campos Racing Driver in F1 Academy): “Overall a really positive weekend for us! Great to secure our best qualifying result of the year with a P2 and a great comeback in the reverse grid race from starting P7 to finishing P2 and with it, our third podium of the year. A huge shame the weather impacted our main race on Sunday but super excited to have another opportunity to bring home some more points and podiums in Montreal”

Photos: Getty Images