Beitske Visser took her first victory of the 2022 W Series season in a dramatic seventh race of the year in Singapore, where championship leader Jamie Chadwick retired from a W Series race for the first time.
The second win of Beitske’s W Series career – and her first since the second race of the inaugural season in May 2019 – came after she took the lead at the opening corner, before holding off a strong challenge from Alice Powell. Pole-sitter Marta Garcia completed the podium at Marina Bay.
Beitske’s victory saw her take second place outright in the championship standings, seven points clear of Alice in third, and 50 behind leader Jamie with three races remaining and a maximum 75 points to be won.
Reigning double champion Jamie had the chance to seal her third straight title at W Series’ first-ever race in Asia but, having qualified in eighth, she crashed out of the race in the closing stages when running in sixth place.
Jamie’s retirement resulted in a frantic finish with the field bunched after a safety-car period. Belen García finished fourth but, behind her, compatriots Jessica Hawkins, Abbi Pulling, and Sarah Moore crossed the line little more than one tenth of a second apart in fifth, sixth, and seventh place respectively. Fabienne Wohlwend, Emma Kimiläinen, and Abbie Eaton completed the top 10.
After Saturday’s rain-curtailed qualifying session, the only change to the starting grid saw Emma serve a two-place grid penalty given to her after the previous race in Hungary for causing a collision. That dropped her from 10th to 12th, and promoted Chloe Chambers and Abbie by one place each.
Marta started from pole position for the second time in her W Series career as a result of her brilliant lap in torrential rain on Saturday, but the outlook was very different 24 hours later when the race of 30 minutes plus one lap began in dry conditions.
Beitske had the better getaway from the front row and overtook Marta on the inside going into Turn 1. Jamie made up two places in the first three corners, moving up to sixth by overtaking title rival Abbi around the outside at Turn 3. Further back, Juju Noda retired after eight corners with damage to the front-right of her car.
By the end of the first lap, Beitske had built a lead of 1.3 seconds over Marta who was coming under extreme pressure from Alice. Belen and Jessica followed the leading trio, with Jamie 3.6 seconds off the front in sixth.
Alice set back-to-back fastest…
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