W Series Spa: Kimilainen wins after sweeping past Chadwick in wet race

The Finnish driver started in fourth for Ecurie W before mastering the wet conditions to move through the field and take her first win since Assen 2019.

Chadwick finished in second for Veloce Racing, maintaining her championship lead, while Puma’s Marta Garcia came in third to take her first podium of the year.

Title challenger Alice Powell (Racing X) finished fourth, having started second, with Caitlin Wood finishing fifth in her second race of the year for Puma.

The race, which was delayed by an hour, started under the safety car, where it stayed for almost the entire first half of the race, before the drivers were released with 16 minutes plus one lap left to go.

Chadwick got a few car lengths on Powell as the race started properly, while further back, Wood, Kimilainen and Garcia went three wide along the Kemmel Straight.

Kimilainen moved into third in turn nine as Wood and Garcia continued to tussle, racing wheel-to-wheel.

Fabienne Wohlwend (Bunker Racing) went deep at La Source, losing the final points place to Sirin Racing’s Vicky Piria with 13 minutes to go.

Emma Kimilainen, 1st position, on the podium

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Chadwick had built up a 2.8s lead from Powell after 18 minutes, with 1.3 seconds between Powell and Kimilainen.

With 11 minutes to go, Garcia set a new fastest lap with a 2m47.664s, while Powell found herself being caught by Kimilainen.

Kimilainen swept past Powell with eight minutes to go, with the front-row starter, who said she had “no grip whatsoever”, forced to concede.

Garcia rapidly approached from fourth, applying pressure to Powell, while Kimilainen was three seconds a lap quicker than Chadwick with five minutes to go, chasing down the race leader.

Kimilainen swept past Chadwick on lap nine, making a late-braking move to squeeze around the outside and almost immediately build a 1.3s lead.

With 30s to go, Garcia took third from Powell, lining herself up to take her podium of the season.

On the last lap, Wohlwend managed to pass W Series Academy driver Nerea Marti for seventh place.

W Series  - Spa-Francorchamps race results

Cla	Drivers	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Emma Kimilainen	12	35'21.478
2	Jamie Chadwick	12	35'29.967	8.489
3	Marta Garcia	12	35'33.427	11.949
4	Alice Powell	12	35'39.660	18.182
5	Caitlin Wood	12	35'57.310	35.832
6	Jessica Hawkins	12	36'01.074	39.596
7	Fabienne Wohlwend	12	36'01.573	40.095
8	Nerea Martí	12	36'02.358	40.880
9	Miki Koyama	12	36'03.235	41.757
10	Abbie Eaton	12	36'04.467	42.989
11	Sabre Cook	12	36'05.179	43.701
12	Vicky Piria	12	36'07.810	46.332
13	Sarah Moore	12	36'08.656	47.178
14	Belén García	12	36'09.258	47.780
15	Bruna Tomaselli	12	36'19.977	58.499
16	Gosia Rdest	12	36'35.333	1'13.855
View full results