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Bianca Bustamante On Her Second F1 Academy Win: “We won something much greater than just a race”

Bustamante pulled ahead of the competition at her team PREMA Racing’s home track at Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy, taking home her second win for the Philippines. 

Bianca Bustamante is taking home her second F1 race win. The 18 year-old professional motorsports driver finished first at the podium for Race 3 of the Monza leg of the F1 Academy’s inaugural season.  

The racer took to Instagram to celebrate her latest victory. “Today in Monza we won something much greater than just a race. I achieved one of the [dreams] of 7yr old Bia to win in her dream track with her Italian dream team,” she wrote. 

Bustamante has been competing in the F1 Academy series as part of the Italian racing team PREMA Racing since April of this year. She became the first female Filipina racer to win in the series when she nabbed her first win in Valencia, Spain last May. Her latest win pushes her up from P8 to P6 in the overall standings. 

Currently in its inaugural season, the F1 Academy series is a seven-round campaign across six countries: Austria, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United States. The spec series itself is historic as it is the first all-female Formula 4-level racing series founded by Formula One, and Bustamante has already made history as one of the first 14 female racers competing. 

Bustamante will be competing at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, France later this month before the series goes on a three-month break. She will then be competing in the F1 Academy’s grand finale in Austin, Texas in October. 

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