2019 W Series Hockenheim round

The 2019 W Series Hockenheim round (also commercially referred to as #WRace1) was the first round of the 2019 W Series, and took place at the Hockenheimring in Germany on 4 May 2019.[1] The event was an undercard to the 2019 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters round at the same circuit.[2]

2019 Hockenheim W Series Round
Race 1 of 6 of the 2019 W Series
Race details
Date 4 May 2019 (2019-05-04)
Official name 2019 W Series Hockenheim round
Location Hockenheimring, Hockenheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 4.574 km (2.842 mi)
Distance 18 laps, 82.332 km (51.156 mi)
Weather Damp
Pole position
Driver
Time 1:58.894
Podium
First
Second
Third

Report

Background

The event was the inaugural round of the W Series, and the first professionally organised female-only motorsport event since the final round of the Formula Woman championship for Caterhams was held at Brands Hatch in 2006.[3]

61 drivers successfully submitted applications to contest the championship, and were required to attend an evaluation day to become part of the 18-driver grid.[4][5] This evaluation, held at Austria's Wachauring, cut the number of applicants from 61 to 28, with the remainder going on to test the series-spec Tatuus–Alfa Romeo F3 T-318 at the Circuito de Almería before series judges selected the 18 regular drivers and 4 reserve drivers.[6]

Only 54 drivers attended the 26–28 January evaluation, which consisted of 10 modules related to teamwork, fitness and media preparation along with various driving-based skill tests. Among those who did not advance to the test day were former GP3 Series drivers Samin Gómez and Carmen Jordá (the latter a series advocate who did not attend), former Australian Formula 3 driver Chelsea Angelo and former U.S.F1600 champion Ayla Ågren.[7][8][9] The five-day test with the series cars on 22–27 March further whittled down the list of applicants, with the likes of ARCA Series driver Natalie Decker and former MSV Formula 2 driver Natalia Kowalska also missing the cut.[10]

The only proper testing for the series regular and reserve drivers was held at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz a fortnight prior to the Hockenheim event, with Marta García emerging quickest.[11][12]

Practice

First practice was topped by reigning MRF Challenge champion Jamie Chadwick, who put the #55 half a second ahead of the experienced Finn Emma Kimiläinen and Ferrari sportscar driver Fabienne Wohlwend. Clutch issues sidelined Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain driver Esmee Hawkey whilst American Shea Holbrook brought out the only red flag of the session.[13]

The top three remained the same in the second session, despite the onset of rain. The gaps however increased from 0.5 to 0.9 seconds across the trio of Chadwick, Kimiläinen and Wohlwend. Drivers struggled to adapt to the conditions, with both Tasmin Pepper and Jessica Hawkins spinning into the gravel and bringing out red flags – the latter returning to the garage on the back of a tow-truck.[14]

Series reserve drivers Sarah Bovy and Vivien Keszthelyi joined the regular field of 18 for Friday practice. In Practice 1, Bovy placed 11th and Keszthelyi 17th, however both were at the bottom of the timesheets in the wet second session.[15]

Qualifying

Qualifying was held in wet conditions. Beitske Visser set the early pace, however ended up watching the majority of the session from the sidelines with turbocharger failure, and Chadwick soon surpassed her. By the mid-portion of the session, Chadwick put herself 1.7 seconds ahead of the rest of the pack led by Sarah Moore. Wohlwend was the one to break the 1-second margin held by Chadwick with ten minutes remaining, however the Briton continued to set the pace becoming the first to set a time under the 2-minute mark in the damp session. The red flag came out with 3 and a half minutes remaining following a spin into the gravel at the Sachs Kurve for Alice Powell, and the session would not restart. As a result, Chadwick scored the first pole position in W Series history, with a large gap back to Wohlwend and a similar margin to Moore in 3rd.[16]

Race

The race started at 4:10pm CET on a drying track. Both Chadwick and Wohlwend both had good initial launches however Wohlwend – starting on the wet side of the circuit – encountered wheelspin whilst going up through the gears, dropping her to 5th by turn one. Both Kimiläinen and Sabré Cook stalled off the start, however Kimiläinen would not advance beyond the hairpin as Megan Gilkes suffered brake failure behind her and would smack into the front-right corner of the Finn, eliminating both on the spot and bringing out the Safety Car. Before the Safety Car was deployed however, Chadwick ran wide on a damp part of the track and handed the lead of the race to Alice Powell. On the restart, Chadwick got back past Powell whilst Marta García moved herself into 3rd place at the expense of Moore, and the top three began to pull away from the rest of the field. The battle for fourth, fifth and sixth between Visser, Moore and Wohlwend also began to pull away from Esmee Hawkey in 7th, who was struggling for pace and came under attack from Vittoria Piria and the hard-charging Miki Koyama. Koyama made an opportunistic move on Piria, with the Italian spinning at the hairpin and collecting a polystyrene advertising board. With two laps to go, Koyama put a forceful move on Hawkey, which sent the Brit down the order and out of the points. Despite the fastest lap for the Japanese driver, she could not close the gap between herself and Wohlwend by the flag. Chadwick went on to win the first W Series race ahead of Powell and García on the podium, with a gap back to the group of Visser, Moore and Wohlwend with Koyama coming from 17th on the grid to finish 7th, with the points rounded out by Tasmin Pepper (who also made a comeback having started 16th), Gosia Rdest and Caitlin Wood.[17]

Classification

Practice
Session No. Driver Time Condts
Practice 1 55 Jamie Chadwick 1:38.650 Dry
Practice 2 55 Jamie Chadwick 1:56.007 Wet

Qualifying
Pos. No. Driver Time Gap
1 55 Jamie Chadwick 1:58.894
2 5 Fabienne Wohlwend 2:00.624 +1.730
3 26 Sarah Moore 2:01.538 +2.644
4 7 Emma Kimiläinen 2:01.673 +2.779
5 19 Marta García 2:01.992 +3.098
6 27 Alice Powell 2:02.729 +3.835
7 11 Vittoria Piria 2:03.340 +4.446
8 95 Beitske Visser 2:03.463 +4.569
9 2 Esmee Hawkey 2:04.298 +5.404
10 3 Gosia Rdest 2:04.478 +5.584
11 21 Jessica Hawkins 2:04.616 +5.722
12 20 Caitlin Wood 2:05.529 +6.635
13 37 Sabré Cook 2:05.644 +6.750
14 49 Megan Gilkes 2:05.676 +6.782
15 99 Naomi Schiff 2:05.914 +7.020
16 31 Tasmin Pepper 2:06.069 +7.175
17 85 Miki Koyama 2:06.666 +7.772
18 67 Shea Holbrook 2:07.112 +8.218
Source:[18]

Race
Pos. No. Driver Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts
1 55 Jamie Chadwick 18 32:59.079 1 25
2 27 Alice Powell 18 +1.329 6 18
3 19 Marta García 18 +1.692 5 15
4 95 Beitske Visser 18 +3.473 8 12
5 26 Sarah Moore 18 +5.771 3 10
6 5 Fabienne Wohlwend 18 +7.049 2 8
7 85 Miki Koyama 18 +8.811 17 6
8 31 Tasmin Pepper 18 +17.136 16 4
9 3 Gosia Rdest 18 +18.889 10 2
10 20 Caitlin Wood 18 +20.384 12 1
11 21 Jessica Hawkins 18 +21.573 11
12 2 Esmee Hawkey 18 +22.995 9
13 37 Sabré Cook 18 +23.365 13
14 99 Naomi Schiff 18 +25.332 15
15 11 Vittoria Piria 18 +31.757 7
16 67 Shea Holbrook 18 +46.206 18
Ret 7 Emma Kimiläinen 0 Crash 4
Ret 49 Megan Gilkes 0 Crash 14
Source:[19]

Championship standings
Pos. Driver Pts Gap
1 Jamie Chadwick 25
2 Alice Powell 18 -7
3 Marta García 15 -10
4 Beitske Visser 12 -13
5 Sarah Moore 10 -15
Source:[20]

See also

References
  1. "HOCKENHEIM RACE 1 PREVIEW". W Series. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  2. "DTM announces 2019 calendar and W Series on support bill". Autosport. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  3. "Speedqueens: Formula Woman". Speedqueens. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  4. "55 women make the first cut for 2019 W Series". Autoweek. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  5. "Six new drivers enter W Series selection". W Series. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  6. "AUSSIES SHINE IN W-SERIES QUALIFYING". Confederation of Australian Motorsport. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  7. "W Series name 28 drivers through to the next stage". W Series. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  8. "Jorda explains absence from W Series driver selection". Motorsport.com. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
  9. "Ågren could be "done with racing" after W Series snub". Motorsport.com. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  10. "W Series announces its driver line-up". W Series. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  11. "Drivers test at the Lausitzring". W Series. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
  12. "Dani Juncadella on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 17 April 2019.
  13. "Hockenheim W Series: Chadwick quickest in first ever practice". Motorsport.com. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  14. "Hockenheim W Series: Chadwick stays on top in wet FP2". Motorsport.com. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  15. "Hockenheim Free Practice Report". W Series. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  16. "Hockenheim W Series: Chadwick dominates qualifying". Motorsport.com. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  17. "Hockenheim W Series: Chadwick fends off Powell in opener". Motorsport.com. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  18. "Hockenheim W Series: Jamie Chadwick on pole by nearly two seconds". Autosport. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  19. "Hockenheim Race Report". W Series. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  20. "Hockenheim W Series: Jamie Chadwick wins inaugural race". Autosport. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
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