First evidence that non-metricity f(Q) gravity could challenge
  $\Lambda$CDM
  We propose a novel model in the framework of $f(Q)$ gravity, which is a
gravitational modification class arising from the incorporation of
non-metricity. The model has General Relativity as a particular limit, it has
the same number of free parameters to those of $\Lambda$CDM, however at a
cosmological framework it gives rise to a scenario that does not have
$\Lambda$CDM as a limit. Nevertheless, confrontation with observations at both
background and perturbation levels, namely with Supernovae type Ia (SNIa),
Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations (BAO), cosmic chronometers (CC), and Redshift
Space Distortion (RSD) data, reveals that the scenario, according to AIC, BIC
and DIC information criteria, is in some datasets slightly preferred comparing
to $\Lambda$CDM cosmology, although in all cases the two models are
statistically indiscriminate. Finally, the model does not exhibit early dark
energy features, and thus it immediately passes BBN constraints, while the
variation of the effective Newton's constant lies well inside the observational
bounds.
