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Beitske Visser has won the 2022 W Series race in Singapore as Jamie Chadwick missed out on her first opportunity to clinch the championship title.
Visser jumped polesitter Marta Garcia off the start and despite later coming under sustained pressure from a charging Alice Powell, the Spaniard was able to hold on for victory.
Chadwick managed to make up two places in the race’s opening corners, fighting her way from eighth to sixth, following a rain-soaked W Series Singapore qualifying yesterday.
However, from then onwards, the runaway title leader found herself unable to make further progress through the field at Marina Bay’s tight, twisting circuit.
What followed was an uncharacteristic series of errors from the reigning W Series champion, as Abbi Pulling closed in on the back of her Jenner race car, and an optimistic late lunge on Jess Hawkins for fifth saw her lock up and hit the barriers.
This brought out a safety car to set up a last-lap shootout for the win between Alice Powell and Visser, but the latter kept her cool and opened enough of a gap on the restart to claim victory.
Start crucial on Singapore streets
Overtaking opportunities were at a premium at Singapore’s tightly-packed street circuit, so predictably, many of the race’s flash points happened in its opening corners.
While Chadwick made a bold move around the outside of Pulling at turn two, Juju Noda’s lunge at turn seven saw her terminally damage her front right wheel, forcing her to pull up at turn eight.
Title contender Powell, meanwhile, piled pressure onto Marta Garcia as the laps went on, before pulling off a daring overtake on the Spaniard into the entry to the tunnel under the grandstand.
Though the Brit was all over the back of Visser just a few laps later, she was unable to make a decisive race-winning move as she appeared to struggle in the wake of dirty air from the car in front.
That said, Powell’s second-place finish keeps her slim title hopes alive, after Chadwick was unable to get the win she needed to clinch her third straight W Series crown.
Where does this leave the title race?
Even before her late crash, Chadwick was on-course for her worst result of the season after a challenging weekend, with her previous worst finish having been second place.
The two-time champion’s crash brought out safety car that may not have yielded any late overtaking action, but it did let Pulling off the hook, as despite losing place to Chadwick early-on, she finds herself still in title contention.
Chadwick heads into the last three races in Austin and Mexico City with a 50-point lead over Visser, and now faces a renewed battle with Powell and Pulling as well, as the championship comes towards a close.
W Series Singapore race results
- Beitske Visser – Winner
- Alice Powell +0.387
- Marta Garcia +1.445
- Belen Garcia +2.207
- Jessica Hawkins +3.404
- Abbi Pulling +3.441
- Sarah Moore +3.529
- Fabienne Wohlwend +5.312
- Emma Kimilainen +5.566
- Abbie Eaton +7.920
- Chloe Chambers +8.470
- Nerea Marti +9.628
- Emely De Heus +10.093
- Bruna Tomaselli +10.397
- Bianca Bustamante +13.876
- Ayla Agren +14.963
- Jamie Chadwick – DNF
- Ayla Agren – DNF
More to follow…