Chadwick wins dramatic race in W Series in Miami

Jamie Chadwick won the first race of the season opener in Miami after starting from second. In an action-packed race, Marta Garcia came back from tenth to second with Jessica Hawkins joining the podium in third.

Drama already began at the start as both polesitter Nerea Marti and last year’s runner-up Alice Powell stalled. A crash during lap 1 ultimately resulted in the Brit retiring, while bringing out the safety car at first and a red flag later. Taking advantage of the situation, Jamie Chadwick jumped in the lead with Emma Kimilainen and Fabienne Wohlwend, who started from fourth and fifth, right behind.

The rolling start saw Kimilainen close up on Chadwick as the two drivers from CortDAO battled with Marta Garcia getting the best out of it. A hard race for Wohlwend, who started to lose positions and ended up crashing with Scuderia W driver Abbie Eaton.

In the meantime, Kimilainen was able to overtake Jamie Chadwickwith seven minutes left in the race and the safety car was brought out as a consequence of the aforementioned accident.

A wrong move for @EmmaKimilainen allows @1JessicaHawkins to move up to P3, claiming her first W Series podium. ?#WSeriesMiami ? #WSeries #F1 pic.twitter.com/JirzP3Sqdo

— W Series (@WSeriesRacing) May 7, 2022

With only one lap to go, all was changed as Jamie Chadwick and Marta Garcia both overtook Emma Kimilainen at the restart. Despite the Finn’s efforts, a contact between Kimilainen and Garcia led to the 32-years-old spinning and granted Jessica Hawkins her first podium in W Series.

Finally, two-times reigning Champion Jamie Chadwick won race 1, also conquering the first-ever victory for Jenner Racing, and will start race 2 from the pole position tomorrow. Next to her on the podium, Marta Garcia concluded her comeback from tenth to second, proving the W Series’ season will be one to look out for in 2022.

The final classification from race 1 is as follows:

1. Jamie Chadwick
2. Marta Garcia
3. Jessica Hawkins
4. Beitske Visser
5. Abbi Pulling
6. Bruna Tomaselli
7. Chloe Chambers
8. Nerea Marti
9. Belen Garcia
10. Sarah Moore
11. Bianca Bustamante
12. Emely De Heus
13. Juju Noda
14. Teresa Babickova
15. Emma Kimilainen

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Headline Image: W Series Press Office