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After a stellar qualifying lap yesterday, Jamie Chadwick started today’s race on pole. She was ready to fight today after last year’s because she has “unfinished business”.
Despite starting on pole, Jamie Chadwick had Emma Kimiläinen right behind her for company. Kimiläinen is known for her stellar starts so was a worry for Chadwick.
The grid had changed since yesterday with Marti suffering a grid drop. Powell also “argued” after qualifying and regained her position of P3.
More Drama for Powell before the race began
Even before the race began, Powell suffered her fair share of drama. Powell stalled off the line into the formation lap and barely got into drive before the last car passed her.
Race Start
As the lights went out, we saw that Chadwick had an incredible start. Another great start came from Fabienne Wohlwend who jumped two places at the start from P6 to P4.
Powell’s start was under investigation from the first lap due to her car being “out of position” when they got to safety car line one. Powell was awarded a 10 second stop-go penalty.
This is unfortunate as Powell seemed to have an incredible race pace. The penalty was awarded just as Powell completed an incredible overtake into 2nd place.
When Powell went in for her stop-go, Powell stalled again coming out of her stops.
As the drama happened in the pits, even more drama happened on the track. Jess Hawkins dived into P6 past Abbie Eaton. During all of this, Chadwick was solidly building up a near 5-second lead. Oh, she also set the fastest lap at this point.
Home Race Stars
With home hero Chadwick streaking ahead, Abbi Pulling was making moves on P3 sitter Fabienne Wohlwend. Wohlwend managed to keep her position but then locked up slightly. This opened the door for Pulling to dart through. Visser also made the most of this mistake and moved into P4.
Jamie Chadwick built up a 5-second gap after the first 12 minutes of the race. Chadwick appeared so dominant. After saying there was “unfinished business”, Chadwick had a job to do. Despite being incredibly dominant throughout previous championships, Chadwick still hasn’t won a grand prix and it seemed like she wanted to change that today.
By halfway through, the British girls were in the points, except for Powell after her stop-go penalty.
Weather Chaos
As Chadwick started to pull away, she will have been wishing the rain away. Despite this, 15 minutes into the race the heavens opened and the rain came out.
Kimiläinen is known to love the rain so it was an exciting turn of events. Despite the rain, Chadwick built up an even bigger gap to over 6 seconds.
In some parts of the circuit, the rain was extremely heavy whereas in others it was nearly dry. With 8 minutes to go, Chadwick had built up a lead of over 8 seconds despite being the first driver heading into the rain.
Closing Stages of the Race
Towards the end of the race, Abbi Pulling set the fastest lap of the race and was closing on Emma Kimiläinen. Pulling was within one second of Kimiläinen, who seemed to not be able to answer Pulling’s attacks.
As the race finished, this battle was the one to watch. The British Girls were nearly all in the points but a British 1-2 would have been spectacular. Pulling continued to put pressure on Kim into the final lap.
Going into the final lap, Pulling went into the back of Kimiläinen. Kimiläinen spun. Despite this, they both got going again.
Wohlwend got up into P4 and was putting Pulling’s dream of a home podium at risk. Depsite this, Pulling managed to cross the line in P3.
Chadwick finished 1st with a 19-second lead and Kimiläinen came home second.
That race made it a 6-race win streak for Chadwick and finally, a home Grand Prix win.
Feature Image: WSeries.com