Chadwick extends W Series lead
Bath racer Jamie Chadwick had extended her lead at the top of the W Series standings after finishing second during a dramatic Belgian Grand Prix.
Emma Kimilainen overtook both Alice Powell and Chadwick to win a breathless fifth race of the 2021 season at a rain-soaked Circuit de Spafrancorchamps and move into title contention.
The 32-year-old started fourth, but earned the second victory of her W Series career by passing defending champion Chadwick and Powell to score a dominant victory by 8.4 seconds in Belgium. Kimilainen is now third in the championship standings on 60 points, 31 behind leader Chadwick with three rounds remaining. Chadwick finished second to extend her advantage over Powell – who finished fourth – to seven points at the top.
The drama begin in qualifying and, as a result of a six-car accident on Friday, only 16 drivers started the race.
Four of the six drivers involved – Sarah Moore, Belen Garcia, Abbie Eaton and Fabienne Wohlwend – were cleared to race. Ayla Agren and Beitske Visser did not receive clearance, though both drivers are determined to return for the sixth race of the season at Zandvoort, Netherlands, this weekend.
After the race, Chadwick said: “I had no answer to Emma [Kimiläinen] today. She was really impressive and just seemed to be able to use better parts of the track for the tyres. From my point of view, it’s still a good day for the championship because I finished ahead of Alice [Powell] and, all things considered, I’m just happy to come through that race unscathed because it was pretty tricky out there. I wanted to go racing when we started behind the safety car, but we managed the situation well and Emma simply did a better job today so all credit to her.”
Chadwick opted to race in Belgium instead of Greenland as Extreme E returned. In the first motorsport event of any kind, Greenland produced a fantastic course that created plenty of carnage on the track. New Zealand racer Emma Gilmour deputised for Chadwick in the Team Veloce car and produced a good first qualifying performance alongside Stephane Sarrazin to finish fourth.
With the qualifying sessions now split and teams awarded points based on their finishes in either session, as opposed to a joint-time across both sessions, the fourthplace proved vital as the pair were one of four cars that failed to finish the tricky course in qualifying two leaving Team Veloce sixth, but qualifying fifth overall to progress to semi-final one.
With the top two now going through to the first ever five car final, Gilmour initially led semifinal one before making a small error in a narrow, inclined section but held position in second as Carlos Sainz pulled away up front.
Before the switch zone, Gilmour also pulled a gap on Christina Gutierrez and held a four second margin before the driver swap, Having taken the controls, X44’s Sebastien Loeb began to close on Sarrazin, and made a move for track position by the lake section, almost dipping a wheel of the X44 ODYSSEY 21 E-SUV into the water.
While Sarrazin pushed hard in pursuit, Loeb closed on Laia Sanz and made a move for the lead using the Hyperdrive before the rocky section of the course. Behind the new leader, Sarrazin tried a new route and did pass Sanz, but broke the car’s suspension and was forced to drag it to the finish line and out of the final.
The penultimate round of the season will be the Island X Prix taking place on October 23-24 in Sardinia.