W Series Britain: Chadwick beats Kimilainen for pole at Silverstone

Two-time and defending champion Chadwick held provisional pole after the first runs with a 1m57.725s, ahead of an impressive lap by rookie Tereza Babickova.

But as all drivers adjusted to track conditions, having completed practice over nine hours earlier in the day, the lap times would be brought down with fresh tyres on the final runs.

That ignited a battle for pole between Chadwick and Kimilainen, with the Finn displacing her rival with a 1m56.977s, but the Briton’s final flying effort regained her pole with a 1m56.758s.

It marks the Jenner Racing driver’s first pole at Silverstone in the W Series and continues her stunning start to 2022, having won all three of the races so far this season.

Despite missing out on pole, second place still marked Kimilainen’s best qualifying result of the year and disrupts the British domination at the front of the field.

Abbi Pulling, who qualified and finished as runner-up to Chadwick last time out in Spain, had to settle for third place having fallen over half a second off the pace by the end of qualifying for the Racing X squad.

Beitske Visser produced an eye-catching late lap to jump up to fourth place for Sirin Racing and pushed Alice Powell back to fifth who was continually pinged for track limits on the exit of Copse.

Fabienne Wohlwend was another late improver to take sixth place, directly ahead of CortDAO team-mate Marta Garcia and Scuderia W duo Abbie Eaton in eighth place and Sarah Moore in ninth.

Jessica Hawkins’ poor run of form continued, having finished runner-up in the season opener, as she qualified down in 10th place for Click2Drive Bristol Street Motors. Early pacesetter Babickova ended up dropping to 12th place behind Belen Garcia.

The British round of the 2022 W Series takes place at Silverstone on Saturday starting at 1.25pm BST.

W Series Britain - qualifying result

Cla	Drivers	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Jamie Chadwick	13	1'56.758			181.637
2	Emma Kimilainen	13	1'56.977	0.219	0.219	181.297
3	Abbi Pulling	14	1'57.312	0.554	0.335	180.779
4	Beitske Visser	13	1'57.366	0.608	0.054	180.696
5	Alice Powell	13	1'57.415	0.657	0.049	180.620
6	Fabienne Wohlwend	13	1'57.441	0.683	0.026	180.580
7	Marta Garcia	12	1'57.615	0.857	0.174	180.313
8	Abbie Eaton	14	1'57.619	0.861	0.004	180.307
9	Sarah Moore	13	1'57.619	0.861	0.000	180.307
10	Jessica Hawkins	14	1'57.672	0.914	0.053	180.226
11	Belén García	13	1'57.761	1.003	0.089	180.090
12	Tereza Bábíčková	14	1'57.910	1.152	0.149	179.862
13	Nerea Martí	13	1'58.138	1.380	0.228	179.515
14	Chloe Chambers	14	1'58.172	1.414	0.034	179.463
15	Bruna Tomaselli	13	1'58.328	1.570	0.156	179.227
16	Juju Noda	13	1'59.580	2.822	1.252	177.350
17	Bianca Bustamante	13	2'00.642	3.884	1.062	175.789
18	Emely de	13	2'01.726	4.968	1.084	174.224