Round 3 of the 2021 W Series championship was held in front of the huge British crowd at Silverstone. Fabienne Wohlwend was looking to convert her front row start into her first ever W Series win, while Alice Powell had the championship lead within her grasp.
Alice Powell got away well from pole position on the grid, as did Fabienne Wohlwend from the front row of the grid. The two drivers were side-by-side in the first sequence of corners. Wohlwend was able to get by Powell and into the lead of the race on the first lap of the race.
Further back on the grid, Beitske Visser had a poor start from P4 on the starting grid, losing multiple positions before the first corner. At the rear of the field, Miki Koyama also had a bad start from the rear of grid, stalling her car. She was able to get the car started again without any help from the marshals.
Despite losing the lead of the race to Wohlwend, Powell was able to keep up with the 23 year old, as the two drivers began to pull away from Jamie Chadwick in P3.
In the midfield, Abbie Eaton made a good overtake at Stowe corner, going the long way around Belen Garcia for P9. Jessica Hawkins tried to follow Eaton through, but Garcia was able to fend off the challenge from the Brit.
With just over 10 minutes remaining in the half hour race, Koyama parked her car on the outside of turn 4 with a technical issue. The safety car was deployed to allow the marshals to remove the stranded car from the circuit.
The race restarted with 7 minutes left on the clock. Wohlwend had a solid restart, maintaining a good gap to Powell behind, as the leading pair once again started to pull away from Chadwick. Emma Kimilainen had a little look around the outside of Chadwick, but wasn’t close enough to make an attack.
Back at the front, Wohlwend out braked herself into Vale, missing the corner apex and compromising her entry into the following corner. This allowed Powell to force her way into the lead on the inside of Club.
Beitske Visser and Sarah Moore provided some entertainment in the closing laps with less than a minute remaining in the race. The duo were wheel-to-wheel for nearly an entire lap. It was Visser who came out on top, advancing to P6.
But it was Alice Powell who took the race victory for the second time in the 2021 W Series season, taking the lead in the championship table. Wohlwend had to settle for the second step of the podium. Jamie Chadwick joined the two on the podium in front of the British crowd.
The W Series will following Formula One to the Hungaroring, which will mark the halfway point in this 2021 W Series championship. The race will take place on July 31 and it will be the last race until the end of the F1 summer break in the last week of August.