MANILA, Philippines, September 26 ------ Promising Filipina F1 racer Bianca Bustamante chose to pick silver linings from her 2024 Singapore Grand Prix experience, despite placing last in Race 1 and 14th of 16th in Race 2 at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. “Enjoyed the butterflies, nothing will ever take away the joy I felt racing again in Asia. Every single moment I treasure even the tough times on track. Using all the lows to fuel my dreams even higher,” the 19-year-old wrote on Instagram. “This track, this city. Amazing opportunity to be able to race here and I wanna thank my team for sticking with me through it all! As well as my sponsor partners for the support.” she added.
Despite the lackluster race times, Bustamante had herself a promising qualifying session stretch, where she came in ninth in the first race with a 2:04.432 time, just 0.2 seconds away from a top five finish, and 10th in the second qualifier with a 2:04.788 finish – 0.4 seconds away from top five. “I pushed as hard as I could but missed a top 5 in qualifying by 0.2 seconds,” Bustamante wrote after the qualifying session last Saturday, September 21. “For sure I’m disappointed as we didn’t execute a perfect qualifying and I hoped for a better result in Singapore, but definitely learned a lot in the process.”
Singapore marks the fifth stop in the 2024 season of the F1 Academy, where the world’s best female racers under the age of 25 are pitted against one another. Bustamante has had quite the season so far, placing fifth in Race 1 of the Jeddah, Saudi Arabia circuit, second in Race 2 in Miami, USA, fourth in Race 1 in Barcelona, Spain, and 11th in Race 2 in Zandvoort, Netherlands. Born Filipino and raised in the US, Bustamante now looks for big bounce-back performances in the season’s sixth stop in Lusail, Qatar from November 29 to December 1, before wrapping up the year in Yas Island, UAE from December 6 to 8.
Source: rappler.com
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