Victoria Farfus sets fastest time in F1 ACADEMY Rookie Test at Navarra

Victoria Farfus emerged as the benchmark of the second F1 ACADEMY Rookie Test, setting a 1:46.988 at the Circuito de Navarra to finish with the fastest time of the day. The 15-year-old Brazilian was the only driver to break into the 1:46s during the event.

The test brought together 18 up-and-coming female drivers, who completed 1,447 laps across the morning and afternoon sessions. It followed the wider Navarra running covered in F1 ACADEMY’s final 2026 in-season test, with the Rookie Test offering another opportunity to assess the next generation of talent.

Morning session: Farfus finds the decisive margin

The pace developed rapidly during the opening session. Sofia Zanfari became the first driver into the 1:48s before Farfus and Autumn Fisher traded the top spot. Zanfari later reclaimed first place with a 1:48.334, but Farfus produced the key lap towards the end of the second hour.

Her 1:46.988 put her three tenths clear of Zanfari, who moved into second, while Rosanne Den Drijver completed the top three. Kokoro Sato, Zoe Florescu and Luna Fluxa Cross followed, with just over eight tenths separating the top 10.

The session then shifted from outright performance to mileage. A brief red flag was triggered when Ella Lähdemaa stopped at Turn 2 with five minutes remaining, ensuring that Farfus’s benchmark stood at the head of the morning classification.

Danielsson tops the afternoon

Alexia Danielsson answered in the second session, setting the fastest afternoon time with a 1:47.259. She initially helped lower the early benchmark alongside Zoe Florescu before Kokoro Sato led for around half an hour. Lähdemaa then moved to the front, but Danielsson immediately responded with the identical 1:47.259.

Lähdemaa finished second in the afternoon, 0.282 seconds behind Danielsson, while Farfus was third, only 0.006 seconds further back. Sato and Sara Matsui completed the top five. Spins for Zanfari and Lähdemaa did not prevent either driver from continuing, although a late red flag followed Kareen Kaur’s stoppage on track.

The 2026 F1 ACADEMY Rookie Test now concludes, with the grid set to return in a month for the penultimate round at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, United States, from October 22–25.