Jamie Chadwick extended her lead at the top of the W Series championship standings to 47 points with a dominant win at the British round of the 2022 season.
The Jenner Racing star led from the start having qualified on pole position and quickly opened up a sizeable gap over the rest of the field. It was an incredibly comfortable victory for Chadwick, who finished more than 19 seconds ahead of second-placed Emma Kimilainen.
Abbi Pulling ensured there were two British drivers on the podium, capitalising on an awful afternoon for mentor Alice Powell and a mistake by Fabienne Wohlwend, though her third place was left in doubt after colliding with Kimilainen on the penultimate lap. Powell had stalled as the cars got underway for the formation lap, dropping down to second last before finally getting going.
That meant she was forced to overtake virtually the entire field to get her place back for the start. But the British driver was unable to do that before the first safety car line, which earned her a 10 second stop-go penalty.
Having overtaken Kimilainen to briefly move up to second, Powell entered the pits to serve her penalty, dropping her all the way to the back of the pack. With Powell virtually out of the race and Kimilainen lagging, Chadwick was able to fly away from the pack for her fourth win of the season.
Pulling cemented her place as Chadwick's main title rival by pressuring Wohlwend into making a mistake at Village corner. Following that overtake, the rest of the pack were unable to make any impact on the podium positions.
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That was despite rain starting to fall as the race entered the final 15 minutes, though all the drivers stayed on slicks. The biggest movers were Jessica Hawkins and Nerea Marti, who made up four and six places respectively.
Hawkins had claimed a podium at the season-opening round in Miami and made a sensational overtake around the outside of Abbi Eaton to move into the top six. But the day was Chadwick's, with the Williams Academy driver adding earning her first-ever win at her home race, leaving the championship leader delighted.
"Going into the weekend, the pressure's on a little bit with the home race but just really wanted to do the best job I could. Last year wasn't a great weekend, so just wanted to come back this year and do the best job I could. Fortunately things fell into place nicely," she said.
"Today I was fortunate with the fact I was able to get a good first lap. With everyone battling behind I was able to make the difference then. I think it was exaggerated at the end because of the battling going on behind. I don't know why it's never been a race for me, but I've got that monkey off my shoulder and it all fell nicely to plan."
Chadwick was denied the fastest lap by Pulling though, who mounted a late challenge on Kimilainen for second. That challenge led to the two colliding at the end of the penultimate lap and damage to both cars, though no further action was taken by the stewards after an investigation, with Pulling left ruing what might have been.
"If I'd known that there was an extra lap, I would've held fire on that last corner and I would've tried again for the last lap. I knew that I had the pace. I felt the whole race I was catching Emma and then midway through I made a mistake and the rain came, but I clawed it back, I think I went quicker than I did in qualifying which is funny," she said.
"Bit disappointed that I didn't get that extra position, but I'm also grateful that the stewards saw my point of view and appreciated that I gave the position back. Emma's been nice to me afterwards and I appreciate that as well. I did the move, but Emma with that little bit of extra experience knew to pinch me and she did a really good job of fending me off."
