W Series Hungary: Chadwick takes pole from Powell as title battle continues

Jamie Chadwick took pole position in W Series qualifying at the Hungaroring ahead of championship rival Alice Powell.

The pair, who have shared the victories so far this season, were separated by less than three-tenths, with the Veloce Racing driver taking the top spot with a 1m42.735s.

Powell, who won last time out at Silverstone for Racing X and leads the championship standings, finished qualifying with a 1m43.009s.

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Chadwick, the reigning champion, led in practice this morning and last took pole in the second round in Austria.

The two Brits are separated by just six points in the drivers standings, with Powell having won two races to Chadwick’s one.

W Series Academy driver Nerea Marti finished in third, with 2019 runner-up Beitske Visser (M Forbes Motorsport) in fourth and Marti’s team-mate Irina Sidorkova in fifth.

Chadwick was ahead after every driver had set a flying lap, with a time of 1m43.864s, followed by Sidorkova and Visser, with Jess Hawkins (Racing X) in fourth.

Visser briefly went quicker, but Chadwick hit back with a 1m43.773s, seven-tenths quicker, before improving even further to a 1m43.401s.

Jamie Chadwick

Veloce Racing’s Bruna Tomaselli then took second with 12 minutes left, just one-tenth behind her team-mate.

Sidorkova had been setting purple sectors on her ninth lap, but ran wide at Turn 11 while carrying too much speed into the corner.

Jess Hawkins had been running in eighth, but with seven minutes to go, went to P5 with a 1m43.908s.

As the times tumbled, Marti briefly went quickest with a 1m43.328s, but the top spot was quickly snatched back by Chadwick, who set the first 36s split in the middle sector to reclaim pole by almost six-tenths.

Tomaselli and Eaton both had times deleted after exceeding track limits, while Marta Garcia also went deep into Turn 4.

Cla	Drivers	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Jamie Chadwick	15	1'42.735
2	Alice Powell	16	1'43.004	0.269
3	Nerea Martí	15	1'43.042	0.307
4	Beitske Visser	14	1'43.180	0.445
5	Irina Sidorkova	15	1'43.379	0.644
6	Bruna Tomaselli	16	1'43.610	0.875
7	Marta Garcia	16	1'43.790	1.055
8	Emma Kimilainen	13	1'43.864	1.129
9	Belén García	15	1'43.898	1.163
10	Jessica Hawkins	15	1'43.908	1.173
11	Vicky Piria	15	1'44.209	1.474
12	Ayla Agren	14	1'44.308	1.573
13	Fabienne Wohlwend	13	1'44.342	1.607
14	Abbie Eaton	16	1'44.581	1.846
15	Miki Koyama	15	1'44.836	2.101
16	Sarah Moore	16	1'44.869	2.134
17	Caitlin Wood	14	1'45.071	2.336
18	Sabre Cook	15	1'45.422	2.687
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