Defending W Series champion Jamie Chadwick of Veloce Racing took one step closer to retaining her championship following a dominant victory at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas on Saturday and will start today’s season finale from pole position. Speaking following the action the English driver said:
“I’m really happy with that after starting second. Having Alice [Powell] behind me on the grid, I knew I had to capitalise at the start and I managed to do that. I’ve won and moved ahead in the championship and that was the main objective today, but the hard work starts tomorrow. I can’t afford to take any risks, so I was a bit hesitant at the start when I came under pressure from Emma [Kimiläinen] but I held on, built a gap and managed the race from there even though it was tricky with the tyres. Alice is still right there in the title fight which was always going to go down to the wire, but I’m starting from pole position tomorrow and that’s great, but I still need to work hard.”
Emma Kimilainen who is mathematically still in the running to win the championship came home in second place and speaking following the action the Finn said:
“My start was mega, but I had an issue with the gears and couldn’t get out of the first corner – luckily the other girls didn’t drive into me. From there I was fighting a lot and made a really good overtake on Belen [Garcia] to get second. I knew I needed to push to get into some clean air and pressurise Jamie [Chadwick]. I got close to her, but I was struggling with grip at the end when Abbi [Pulling] was pushing me hard and there was no time for saving tyres. But still a good race for me and I gave it my all.”
Alice Powell came through the field to finish the race in third place having overtaken Abbi Pulling late in the race to claim the final spot on the podium. Speaking following the race, Powell said:
“Qualifying and practice were a nightmare for me, but starting so far back gave me the mindset of having nothing to lose. As Daniel Ricciardo says, it was about licking the stamp and sending it, and I had great pace in the race so a big thank you to everyone at Racing X for working so hard to get me sorted and in the right frame of mind. So, a great race and hopefully there’s more to come tomorrow. Abbi [Pulling] and Sarah [Moore] were pretty nice to me but I’m gutted to take that podium spot from Abbi at the end. She’s got another front row start tomorrow so hopefully she improves again.”
Beitske Visser came home in fifth place just ahead of Jessica Hawkins and Sarah Moore while Narea Marti was seventh just ahead of Fabienne Wohlwend and Miki Koyama who rounded out the top ten. Sabre Cook finished her home race just outside the top ten in eleventh place just ahead of Belen Garcia and Caitlin Wood.
Vicky Piria was 14th just ahead of Marta Garcia and Ayla Agren. Bruno Tomaselli rounded out the order in 17th place while Abbie Eaton was the only retirement from the race. Jamie Chadwick takes a ten-point lead in today’s championship decider.