Academy Report: Alessandro doubles up as Lia goes off-road

An extended summer break for someone in the Williams Racing Driver Academy ended as it started back in July — with victory.

Alessandro Giusti made it two successful Sundays in two rounds of racing as FRECA returned to action.

However, our French teenager wasn't the only name representing Williams Racing over the weekend.

Our karting hopefuls gained valuable experience, and Lia Block headed home for some different racing, too. Here's how everyone fared.

The second of three Italian rounds in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine saw the Williams Racing logo on the top step of the podium.

Alessandro's long time away from the track didn't take away his sharpness at Imola as the 17-year-old again excelled in slippery conditions.

A P3 start in Race 2 quickly turned into the lead as two of Alessandro's championship rivals collected each other in the first braking zone to leave clear air ahead.

The resulting Safety Car had a perfectly judged restart from Alessandro when it returned to the pit lane, but there'd be many more slowdowns before the race finished.

Alessandro kept his cool to take the win, though, adding 25 points to the 10 he picked up for P5 in Race 1 to be a single point away from P3 in the standings.

Not content with racing in the Baja 1000, Formula Winter Series, Spanish F4, and F1 Academy in 2024, Lia added another feather to her helmet by joining Nitrocross for the season opener.

The rallycross series sees mixed-surface wheel-to-wheel racing, with dramatic high-speed jumps on the track.

Lia raced in the electric car Group E category at Richmond Raceway and took her Dodge Hornet up the order to P6 from a P8 start in Round 1.

She doubled up that result with another P6 the following day in Round 2, creating a grandstand finish as she had a photo finish with series veteran Tanner Foust.

Our three karting representatives enjoyed some racing at Britain's largest karting track in Lincolnshire as the esteemed PF International hosted a busy weekend of action.

Oleksandr Bondarev and Sara Matsui raced against each other in the Champions of the Future OK category to mixed fortunes.

Unfortunately, they could not go wheel-to-wheel in the Final, with Sara retiring from the Super Heat, but Bondi represented the Academy well by exercising his overtaking prowess to advance 15 positions in the 22-lap finale to finish P15.

Academy newcomer Dean Hoogendoorn also took to the UK but in the OK-Junior series.

A fourth-row qualification showed the raw pace the young Dutchman had around the PFI Circuit, but his race, like Sara's, ended prematurely and he didn't see the chequered flag.