Jamie Chadwick took a lights-to-flag victory and bagged fastest the lap to score a dominant win in W Series’ Hungaroring round.
The Veloce driver qualified on pole, with Alice Powell lining up alongside her, followed by rookie Nerea Marti and Beitske Visser.While Chadwick made her getaway at the start, Fabienne Wohlwend ran wide at turn one, colliding with Ayla Agren and breaking her front wing. Irina Sidorkova passed Visser for fourth on the second lap in an otherwise fairly uneventful start to proceedings.
After 10 minutes Chadwick had drawn out a two-and-a-half second gap over Powell, who had a slightly larger gap to Marti behind. Next up was Sidorkova, making some gains on her rival, the two W Series Academy drivers vying for a maiden podium.
Wolhwend had been lapped by the second half of the 30-minute race and was instructed to come into the pits to retire her car, following the first-lap damage.
Chadwick’s pace throughout the race was phenomenal, her lap times only a second or so off her pole lap. By the final six minutes of the race she had a near-seven-second gap over Powell.
Miki Koyama was hunting down Abbie Eaton in the final five minutes, running right behind Eaton and forcing her to defend hard. As they rounded turn one Koyama got too close to her rival, nudging the car ahead with her front wing.
Despite the damage, Koyama ran side-by-side with Eaton and passed her for twelfth place. “Your front wing is okay, keep pushing,” her engineer advised. However the initial contact is subject to a post-race stewards’ investigation.
Emma Kimilainen drew side-by-side with Marta Garcia after the Puma driver made a mistake through turn 11, able to take sixth place by turn 13 but in slightly scruffy fashion as the battle pushed Kimilainen off the track somewhat round the outside of turn 12. The pass was, again, announced as subject to a post-race stewards’ investigation.
Chadwick was still setting fastest laps as she led the field to the penultimate lap before the clock ran down. Her lead by that point was unassailable, Powell following across the line in second and Marti finishing third to take her first W Series podium.
After four races and two wins apiece, Chadwick has now demoted Powell to second in the championship standings. Moore’s failure to score sees her fall to fourth in the standings behind Marti.
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W Series Qualifying race results
| Position | Driver | Team |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jamie Chadwick | Veloce |
| 2 | Alice Powell | Racing X |
| 3 | Nerea Marti | W Academy |
| 4 | Ira Sidorkova | W Academy |
| 5 | Beitske Visser | M Forbes |
| 6 | Emma Kimilainen | Ecurie W |
| 7 | Marta Garcia | Puma |
| 8 | Belen Garcia | Scuderia W |
| 9 | Bruna Tomaselli | Veloce |
| 10 | Jessica Hawkins | Racing X |
| 11 | Ayla Agren | M Forbes |
| 12 | Miki Koyama | Sirin |
| 13 | Abbie Eaton | Ecurie W |
| 14 | Sabré Cook | Bunker Racing |
| 15 | Sarah Moore | Scuderia W |
| 16 | Vicky Piria | Sirin |
| 17 | Caitlin Wood | Puma |
| 18 | Fabienne Wolhwend | Bunker Racing |
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Rowmk9
31st July 2021, 21:05
Chadwick does seem to be consistently at or near the front. I would like to see her get some support and funding to have an F2 season with a decent team.