W Series: Defending Champion Jamie Chadwick Wins Season Opener In Miami

Defending champion Jamie Chadwick completed a perfect weekend at W Series Miami by dominating the season-opening doubleheader by winning a dramatic race 1, and a lights-to-flag victory in race 2. The reigning double champion took her fourth straight W Series race win, and eighth overall, courtesy of a controlled drive from pole position. Chadwick crossed the finish line three seconds ahead of Nerea Martí who secured her best finish and the second podium of her W Series career. Last season's runner-up Alice Powell was further six seconds behind in third place to score her 10^th W Series podium finish.

Jamie Chadwick took her fourth straight W Series race win, and eighth overall, courtesy of a controlled drive from pole position.

Nerea's team-mate Belen Garcia finished fourth to equal her best W Series finish, while Emma Kimilainen lost her third place in the penultimate lap, due to contact with Alice, resulting in crossing the chequered flag at fifth place. Some fine overtaking in the closing stages saw Abbi Pulling finish sixth, one place ahead of Beitske Visser. Sarah Moore and Marta Garcia were eighth and ninth respectively. Chloe Chambers completed the top 10 to score her first W Series points and finish as the highest-placed of the five drivers making their W Series debuts this weekend.

The drivers' second-best time during qualifying on Saturday had set the grid for race two, and the front row from race one was reversed as Chadwick started from pole position and Nerea behind her. Fabienne Wohlwend started 10^th after receiving a five-place grid penalty for causing a collision in race one. The top two retained their starting positions as they exited turn 1, but Nerea was under pressure from Emma who started third. The Finn went up to second with a move on the inside at the entry to turn 11 but went deep on the exit allowing Nerea to regain the place. Chadwick led by just under a second at the end of lap one, by which time the only changes in the top 10 saw Sarah, Fabienne and Marta move up one place each as Abbi dropped from eighth on the grid to 11^th.

(L-R) Marta Garcia, Jamie Chadwick, and Jessica Hawkins completed the podium for race 1. 

Within the next few laps, Emma attempted the same move on Nerea and made it stick this time to go second. Three minutes later, Bruna Tomaselli pitted with a front-right puncture, relegating her to the back of the field. With a third of the race gone, Nerea overtook Emma for the second place, but Emma fought back along the grandstand straight and re-took the position at turn 1. Up ahead, Chadwick set the fastest lap of the race to extend her lead to almost two seconds.

The battle for second continued the next lap, and Nerea regained her starting position by overtaking Emma at turn 11. With just under half of the 30-minutes plus one lap race gone, Alice briefly moved into the podium positions by going late on the brakes into turn 1, but Emma dipped back under Alice on the exit to stay in third. That put Alice under pressure from Belen, but the former held on as the pair went wheel-to-wheel for several corners in the middle sector of the lap.

Behind that battle, Sarah passed Beitske for sixth place at turn 1 with 14 minutes remaining. Jamie led by 1.6 seconds at the halfway stage, but Nerea set the fastest lap to halve the leader's advantage as they entered the final 10 minutes of the race.

Jamie Chadwick (55) eclipses W Series rivals with back-to-back victories.

Abbi was the quickest driver on track and urged by her engineer over the radio to make a move on Beitske for seventh place, which she duly did at turn 11 with seven minutes to go. Sarah was next up the road for Abbi and, five minutes later, she overtook her for sixth at turn 17 before holding off a fightback from her compatriot at turn 1 on the next lap, and Beitske followed Abbi past Sarah for seventh later a few corners later.

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Rounding out the #WSeriesMiami weekend with your top ten from Race 2.@AlicePowell moves up to P2 as @nereamarti32 received a penalty for impeding a driver. pic.twitter.com/P3HPiocDH3

— W Series (@WSeriesRacing) May 8, 2022

On the penultimate lap, Alice and Emma made contact at turn 17, sending Emma spinning and down to fifth behind Belen. Alice suffered front-wing damage but harboured the car home safely in third, although the stewards were investigating that incident after the race. Jamie upped her pace to regain a buffer of almost two seconds to Nerea going into the final lap, and the champion remained error-free to complete a perfect weekend.

Overall Drivers' Standing After W Series Round 1