John N
Jamie Chadwick won again in Spain, adding to her perfect start to the 2022 season and extending her lead in the standings. The Briton – who turned 24 yesterday – backed up her two wins at the season-opening double-header in Miami a fortnight ago with a perfect weekend in Spain where she topped all three sessions, led every lap, and recorded the fastest lap in Saturday’s race.
The ninth victory of Jamie’s W Series career – and her fifth in a row – sees her extend her lead at the top of the championship standings to 37 points with seven of this season’s ten races remaining. Jamie Chadwick made a perfect getaway from pole position and expertly controlled her pace from the front to win the race by half a second from Abbi Pulling, who overtook Alice Powell at the start.
Alice was a further 0.7 seconds back in third place to complete an all-British podium. Abbi’s second W Series podium moves her into second place in the championship, five points ahead of Alice, who took the 11th podium finish of her W Series career. Emma Kimiläinen finished fourth, and Beitske Visser was fifth.
Marta Garcia, in sixth, was the best-placed of W Series’ trio of Spanish drivers competing at their home race in support of the Formula 1® Pirelli Gran Premio de Espana 2022. She was closely followed by compatriots Belen Garcia in seventh and Nerea Martí in eighth, as Fabienne Wohlwend and Sarah Moore completed the top 10.
The only change to the starting grid saw Tereza Babickova start 16th, having received a three-place grid penalty for causing a collision during the last race in Miami.
Jamie Chadwick adds another trophy to her growing collection 🏆
Three Brits on the podium! 👏 pic.twitter.com/3O33OxmwkU
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) May 21, 2022
Using cars supplied by Toyota Gazoo Racing New Zealand (TGRNZ) for the first time this weekend, all 18 drivers got away cleanly at the start, and none more so than Jamie. The latter took full advantage of her pole position to comfortably retain the lead into the first corner. Behind her, Abbi overtook Alice for second around the outside on the exit of Turn 1, and Emma passed Beitske for fourth.
The top five were followed by the three Spanish drivers on the grid, with Marta leading that trio and Nerea going from 11th to eighth on lap one – making up more places than any other driver – by the end of which Jamie led by more than one second.
With a third of the 30-minute plus one lap race gone, the top 10 were posting lap times within two-tenths of a second of each other. Abbi had cut Jamie’s advantage to less than half a second, and Alice was only four-tenths further back in third, but Jamie responded by setting the fastest lap of the race.
With 15 minutes remaining, Sarah moved into the top 10 by overtaking Jessica Hawkins at Turn 1. The track temperature soared above 45 degrees Celsius, meaning managing their Hankook tires became crucial. The drivers entered the final third of the race when Jamie had eked out a buffer of almost one second again.
Abbi had halved the deficit by the start of the final lap and was urged by her engineer to “keep the pressure on” during the final circuit. She did just that but couldn’t force Jamie, who kept her cool in the sweltering heat, to seal the victory. The race finished with waved yellow flags as Jamie’s team-mate Chloe Chambers lost the rear of her car and got stuck in the gravel at Turn 9.
Battle for P5, as @martaracing starts to close in on @beitskevisser. 👊#WSeriesBarcelona 🇪🇸 #WSeries #F1 pic.twitter.com/FMEHnECHn7
— W Series (@WSeriesRacing) May 21, 2022
TGRNZ is supporting W Series with the logistics required to get racing cars to F1 race weekends in the most sustainable way this year. As well as being used by W Series at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya this weekend, Toyota’s FT60 cars will also be at Suzuka, Japan, in October when W Series will stage its first race in Asia.
W Series uses identical Tatuus chassis to the Toyota Racing Series, but with different engines, and the cars being shipped for the two events retain their Toyota engines.
Sharing cars between the two championships helps manage logistics and enables the use of the sea instead of air and freight, keeping the series’ carbon footprint as low as possible.
An epic battle for the top three. 💪
🗣 Hear driver reactions from the @Circuitcat_eng. 🤩#WSeriesBarcelona #SpanishGP #WSeries
— W Series (@WSeriesRacing) May 21, 2022
Jamie Chadwick (Jenner Racing, 24, UK) said:
“It was all about managing the tires in that race, and I managed to do that. In the last few laps, I got a bit nervous and struggled when I came under pressure from Abbi [Pulling], but fortunately, I managed to hold her off, and I’m delighted with the win.”
Abbi Pulling (Racing X, 19, UK) said:
After bouncing back from Miami and a poor qualifying, I’m proud of myself. I started on the front foot here, and big thanks to my team. I had a good pace and couldn’t quite get JamieChadwick, but it’s still a good result. I know what I need to do in the next races.
Alice Powell (Click2Drive Bristol Street Motors Racing W Series Team, 29, UK) said:
“I knew it was going to be about saving tires. A couple of times, I got closer to Abbi [Pulling], but it wasn’t working out, so I dropped back a little bit and went again, but it gets tougher as soon as you get close. I had a brake issue in qualifying yesterday, which was disappointing, and it carried on today when I kept locking up, but it’s still solid points, and we move on to the next race at Silverstone.”
Dave Ryan (Racing Director, W Series) said:
Jamie [Chadwick] drove an excellent race and had a good weekend. She had a good weekend. It’s pleasing to see Abbi [Pulling] did a strong drive to come second, she’s going to improve massively throughout the year, and I can see her pushing Jamie. Alice [Powell] was right up there, and it was tight at the front, but Jamie had it under control.
“There was some excellent racing throughout the field. It’s clear that the new drivers just need more time in the car. At a track where everyone else has driven quite a lot, and from their position towards the rear of the grid, you could see they need more miles than they’ll get during the year.
“We had a different set of cars here from TGRNZ, they’re great cars, and the guys did a fantastic job preparing them for us, with five of their crew here this weekend. They’re great workers and they’ve fitted in seamlessly, so it’s been a pleasure working with them.”
