Just one week after the long awaited return of the W Series championship, the drivers were back in action at the Red Bull Ring for round 2 of the 2021 season. This time, it was defending champion Jamie Chadwick’s turn to shine, leading the race from pole position and taking the lead in the championship standings.
A few drivers struggled to get off of the line at the start of race, including Beitske Visser from the front row of the grid. Further behind Ayla Agren and Marta Garcia both stalled as well. They were all able to eventually get their cars going again, but were now at the back of the field.
With Visser having stalled, polesitter Jamie Chadwick was able to take a comfortable lead on the opening lap, stretching that lead to more than 2 seconds in the first 5 minutes of the race. Irina Sidorkova, the youngest driver on the grid, was able to get by Bruna Tomaselli, despite running wide in the first corner of the race. Tomaselli was passed by Emma Kimilainen the following lap down the main straight.
Tomaselli was under pressure from Sarah Moore until Nerea Marti joined the battle for P5. Marti attempted to get around Moore by using some late braking into turn 3, but she carried too much speed into the corner and was forced to clatter over the yellow sausage kerb on the outside, causing some very minor damage to her front wing.
Further behind, the two PUMA teammates collided in turn 4. Marta Garcia was on the inside of the corner and Gosia Rdest was on the outside. Rdest spun around, dropping to the back of the field. She was lucky to stay out of the gravel and a quick U-turn allowed her to continue the race.
With ten minutes remaining in the race, Moore was right on the gearbox of Tomaselli, but was struggling to get by the Brazilian, who was bunching up the field. The congested field allowed Abbie Eaton to overtake Marti for P6. The two battled for position, with Eaton eventually coming out ahead. This allowed Tomaselli and Moore to pull ahead, meaning that Moore could finally start to focus on making offensive moves rather than defending.
It paid off, as Moore was finally able to overtake the Brazilian for P4 with less than two minutes remaining in the race. Eaton was too far behind to challenge for P5, meaning Tomaselli would keep her hard fought top five position.
Further ahead, Kimilainen was able to catch up to Sidorkova, but ran out of laps to get by the young Russian, having to settle for P3. These two drivers shared the podium with Jamie Chadwick, who was on top of the podium for the first time this season after leading the race from start to finish.
Despite a poor start to the season in the opening round last weekend, Chadwick takes the W Series championship lead. With a P4 finish, Sarah Moore was able to jump Alice Powell in the championship standings, as the winner of the season opener falls to third.
That’s two races done in the 2021 W Series, but the season is far from over. Next up is round 3 at the legendary Silverstone circuit in two weeks. The race will be on July 17.
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