Hockenheim

Recap

Podium

1 st

Results

race

Position Pos.	Driver Number	Driver	Country	Laps	Time	Points
1	55	J . amie Chadwick	British	18	32:59:079	25
2	27	A . lice Powell	British	18	33:00:408	18
3	19	M . arta Garcia	Spanish	18	33:00:771	15
4	95	B . eitske Visser	Dutch	18	33:02:552	12
5	26	S . arah Moore	British	18	33:04:850	10
6	5	F . abienne Wohlwend	Liechtensteiner	18	33:06:128	8
7	54	M . iki Koyama	Japanese	18	33:07:890	6
8	31	T . asmin Pepper	South African	18	33:16:215	4
9	3	G . osia Rdest	Polish	18	33:17:968	2
10	20	C . aitlin Wood	Australian	18	33:19:463	1
11	21	J . essica Hawkins	British	18	33:20:652	0
12	2	E . smee Hawkey	British	18	33:22:074	0
13	37	S . abré Cook	American	18	33:22:444	0
14	99	N . aomi Schiff	Rwandan	18	33:24:411	0
15	11	V . icky Piria	Italian	18	33:30:836	0
16	67	S . hea Holbrook	American	18	33:45:285	0
DNF	7	E . mma Kimilainen	Finnish	18	–	0
DNF	49	M . egan Gilkes	Canadian	18	–	0

The weekend at Hockenheim

CHADWICK HISTORIC WINNER OF INAUGURAL W SERIES RACE

Close racing at Hockenheim entertains fans

British driver Jamie Chadwick, 20, stood on the top step of the podium at Hockenheim today to become the first ever W Series race winner. The pole sitter had to cope with strong opposition from the 17 other drivers in the first race of the first ever single-seater series for female drivers only, but she mastered the tricky conditions in what was a closely fought opening round to the six-race competition.

Very wet conditions in qualifying were a challenge for all the W Series drivers, but Bath-born Jamie was at the top of the time sheets for most of the 25-minute session, Fabienne Wohlwend (from Liechtenstein) claiming the other front-row starting position and another Brit, Sarah Moore, third on the grid.

As weather conditions improved ahead of the race and the 18 cars lined up behind the start-line, nerves were understandably kicking in for all the drivers, but they did not show it. Jamie made a perfect start to lead the field; however, a brake issue for her at the hairpin gave Sarah a window of opportunity to steal the lead, which she duly did. Then, still on lap one, a collision at Turn Six resulted in Megan Gilkes (CAN) and Emma Kimiläinen (FIN) retiring and the Safety Car being deployed so that their damaged cars could be moved out of the way.

Then all eyes turned to Alice Powell (GBR) who climbed from P6 to P2, creating an exciting Brit-versus-Brit-versus-Brit battle at the head of the field. But Jamie fought hard to restore her lead, Alice hot on her heels in second and Marta Garcia (ESP) storming through to third, a line-up that then continued all the way to the chequered flag.

Behind that three-way battle there were some great fightbacks, several drivers making up places from lowly starting positions, among them Tasmin Pepper (RSA), who drove from 16^th to eighth; but Miki Koyama (JAP) drove even more forcefully, moving from 17th on the grid to seventh at the flag, not only setting the fastest lap of the race but the second-fastest too, just 0.001sec slower than her best.