It took five hours, a thunderstorm, a safety car restart and 23 year old Abbi Pulling refusing to blink. When the lights went out at Spa-Francorchamps on two Saturdays ago for the GB3 Race 2, the Rodin Motorsport driver converted pole position into a lights-to-flag victory, rewriting the record books in the process.
Pulling became the first woman ever to win a race in the GB3 Championship. She held off championship leader Nikita Bedrin by just over six tenths of a second to take a result that will be remembered forever.
The Beginning
Pulling grew up in Gosberton, Lincolnshire. She got behind the wheel for the first time at the age of eight. By the time she was competing in the Super 1 National Junior TKM Championship, the results were speaking for themselves.
She won the title in both 2017 and 2018, becoming one of the most decorated young female karters in British motorsport history.
The step into single-seaters came via Ginetta Juniors before a move to British Formula 4 in 2020, where she finished sixth as a rookie with four podium finishes. She returned for a second F4 campaign in 2021 before financial pressures cut her season short mid-year.
This gap in her career is something she has spoken about publicly with honesty, and it led to the next chapter.
F1 Academy
Pulling’s route back into racing ran through the W series, where she debuted at Silverstone in 2021. She returned for a full campaign in 2022, finishing fourth. That year also earned her a place as an Alpine Affiliate – the first female driver to hold that distinction – before full Alpine Academy membership followed ahead of 2023.
That year, Pulling entered the inaugural F1 ACADEMY season with Rodin Carlin, finishing fifth with seven podiums. The 2024 season was a different story entirely. She took ten pole positions and nine race victories across the 14 race calendar.
She finished on the podium in every single race, a feat that no F1A driver had achieved before. Pulling wrapped up the championship with two rounds still remaining.
Nine wins. 14 podiums. One title. It was not a close fight.
GB3, Formula E and a season of learning
Pulling’s reward for the F1A title was a fully funded GB3 seat with Rodin Motorsport for 2025. The step up was steep – GB3 is a fiercely competitive championship, and the machinery is a significant jump.
She finished tenth overall, but the number undersells the year. She was adapting, improving and banking data. A podium at Brands Hatch late in the season proved the pace was there.
Alongside GB3, Pulling took on a rookie and simulator driver role with the Nissan Formula E team, completing testing in Berlin and setting the fastest time in the all-women’s test in Madrid. The Nissan programme continued into 2026, with a Formula E Rookie Test appearance at Jarama in March.
The 2026 GB3 season opened at Silverstone with a last-lap collision that denied Pulling a podium in Race 2. Questions hung over how the year would go. Spa answered them.
Spa, 30 May 2026 – Pulling’s GB3 race
The morning session at Spa never happened. Torrential rain and thunderstorms rolled in overnight and did not let up. This forced the abandonment of the original Race 1 start procedure.
The GB3 grid sat, waited and watched the skies. When the sun finally broke through, the race was rescheduled – and took place more than five hours after it was originally supposed to start.
Pulling was on pole. She had earned it in qualifying the previous day, and she was not about to surrender it.
From the moment the lights went out, she executed. Her getaway was clean and she cleared the pack through Les Combes. By the end of the first lap, Pulling had already begun building a gap. Behind her, Bedrin and Rodin teammate Martin Molnar were engaged in their own battle, which bough Pulling the space she needed to settle into a rhythm.
A safety car with five laps remaining tightened the field and reset the pressure. A restart at Spa with the GB3 championship leader in your mirrors is not a comfortable place to be.
However, Pulling nailed it. She managed the restart, controlled the gap and crossed the line 0.6 seconds clear of Bedrin. After post-race penalties were applied, Molnar was promoted to third, meaning it was a Rodin 1-3.
Pulling had become the first woman to win a GB3 Championship race. In British motorsport history, no woman had stood on the top step of the GB3 podium before her. She is now the one who changed that.
The Spa victory does more than close a chapter. It ones one. With six rounds remaining in 2026, Pulling has the pace, the platform and the proof to turn this historic win into a genuine title challenge – and to keep making history one race at a time.
Featured image credit: racingnews.com
Edited by Alexandra.
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