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Saudi Woman Races Formula One Car as Ban on Female Drivers Is Lifted

Saudi Arabia’s first female racer does a lap before the French Grand Prix to celebrate.

Aseel Al-Hamad, the first female member of the Saudi Arabian Motorsport Federation, hit the Le Castellet circuit in France on Sunday to mark the end of a driving ban on women at home. After performing a lap on the track in a Lotus Renault E20 ahead of the French Grand Prix, Al-Hamad said sitting behind the wheel of a Formula One car “goes even beyond my dreams and what I thought was possible.” “I hope doing so on the day when women can drive on the roads in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia shows what you can do if you have the passion and spirit to dream,” she said in a statement. Saudi Arabian women took to the roads just minutes after the decades-long driving ban was lifted at midnight. The world’s last ban on female drivers, it was ordered to be abolished by King Salman last fall as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s reform drive.