Emirati Anma Al Qubaisi made history during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend by becoming the first Arab female race winner in a single seater category.
Al Qubaisi won the Formula 4 UAE race and, in an interview with CNN’s Becky Anderson, said she is now targeting a place in Formula 3 next year.
Anma’s sister Hamda Al Qubaisi, also a driver, and their father Khaled who is a former driver, were also interviewed about their experiences and their pride for Amna making history.
Anma said: “It was amazing, a new experience for me, I cried the first time I crossed the chequered flag… all the hard work and the experience finally paid off.
“I started in 2014 in karting, I competed locally, then I started competing in Europe, I claimed top five positions, I participated in the world championship and got the fastest lap time so from that I had the sponsorship from Kaspersky Lab to move me up to Formula 4.”
She added: “Definitely the next step is Formula 3, that’s the main goal and hopefully next year we’ll get into that. Yesterday was really amazing, I made a nine second gap, I made the fastest lap time and I made history being the first woman to qualify pole position.”
However, her ultimate goal, she said, is Formula 1.
Her sister Hamda told CNN: “After I saw Amna in her first season racing she inspired me, and I wanted to get into it straight away… and in my first season I already surprised myself getting five podiums and from there I just wanted to keep going.”
Her father Khaled said: “I’m extremely, extremely proud, not only as their father, their countryman, for the whole UAE this is really means a lot… There’s no boundaries even though they’re females, I said the can do whatever they want and they surprised us, Amna and Hamda, they did really well in karting, in single seaters, and now you see them here… winning a race and making history.”
He added: “We see it in all kinds of fields, females are out in force, they’re dedicated, they’re committed, they’re competing in the workplace, in sports, and it’s all because of our leadership giving us right from the get-go the opportunity for education and sport.”
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