2021 2nd Spielberg W Series round explained

The 2021 W Series Spielberg round 2 was the second round of seven in the 2021 W Series, and took place at the Red Bull Ring in Austria on 3 July 2021.^[1] The event was an undercard to the 2021 Formula One World Championship round at the same circuit.^[2]

Report

Background

The event was initially scheduled as the opening round of the season to be held at Circuit Paul Ricard in conjunction with the 2021 French Grand Prix, however amendments made to the 2021 Formula One calendar resulted in the change.^[3]

Alice Powell led the championship on 25 points, 7 points ahead of Sarah Moore.

Race

The 2019 championship protagonists shared the front row of the grid but Beitske Visser stalled on the line and gave polesitter Jamie Chadwick a free kick heading into turn 1. Bruna Tomaselli and Irina Sidorkova leapfrogged Emma Kimiläinen at the start to briefly give Veloce Racing a 1–2 before Sidorkova track-extended her way around the outside into 2nd. Visser's team-mate Ayla Ågren and Marta García also stalled on the line. Kimiläinen re-passed Tomaselli on lap 2 and the oldest driver in the field set after the youngest driver in the field.

Bunker Racing team-mates Fabienne Wohlwend and Sabré Cook were the beneficiaries of the three stallers, moving from the back third of the field (Cook not setting a time in qualifying after she spun into a gravel trap) up to a battle for 10th. The American relegated her Liechtensteiner team-mate out of the points, whilst Sarah Moore found herself in a battle with a Spanish rookie for the second consecutive weekend – once again holding off said driver, this time Nerea Martí. Their battle proved fairer than that of Puma team-mates Marta García and Gosia Rdest; the Spaniard recovering from her earlier stall caught her Polish stablemate at the mid-point of the race and spun her out at turn 4.

The podium places were running away from the rest of the field – fourth-placed Tomaselli did not have the pace of the top three and formed a train with Moore next in line, who capitalised on the Brazilian's woes passing her for fourth on the penultimate lap. There was further movement within that pack as Abbie Eaton passed Martí for sixth. Cook meanwhile was struggling with balance issues late in the piece, resulting in both her team-mate and a hard-charging Visser passing her to battle over P10. A tough race for Miki Koyama was effectively ended after a pit-stop for a flat-spotted tyre left her a lap down.

Chadwick cruised to her first victory of the season, with Sidorkova holding out the much faster Kimiläinen for the entire race to finish second in her second W Series race. It was daylight back to the next group of cars; Sarah Moore some sixteen seconds behind the Finn as a result of Tomaselli's issues. The previous weekend's winner Alice Powell had an anonymous race, starting 12th and finishing 8th ahead of Belén García and Wohlwend – the Liechtensteiner beating Visser to the last point by just over two tenths of a second.

Classification

Qualifying

		Driver	Team	Time/
1	55		Veloce Racing	1:28.473
2	95		M. Forbes Motorsport	+0.118
3	7		Écurie W	+0.349
4	97		Veloce Racing	+0.392
5	32		W Series Academy	+0.540
6	51		W Series Academy	+0.579
7	19			+0.636
8	26		Scuderia W	+0.700
9	17		M. Forbes Motorsport	+0.803
10	22		Scuderia W	+0.875
11	44		Écurie W	+1.088
12	11		Sirin Racing	+1.142
13	27		Racing X	+1.160
14	5		Bunker Racing	+1.170
15	21		Racing X	+1.223
16	3		Puma W Series Team	+1.287
17	54		Sirin Racing	+1.300
18	37		Bunker Racing	No time
Source:[5]

• – Piria was given a 3-place grid penalty for causing a collision in the previous event.

Race

		Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid
1	55	Jamie Chadwick	Veloce Racing	21	31:33.119	1	25
2	51	Irina Sidorkova	W Series Academy	21	+6.606	5	18
3	7	Emma Kimiläinen	Écurie W	21	+6.929	6	15
4	26	Sarah Moore	Scuderia W	21	+22.939	8	12
5	97	Bruna Tomaselli	Veloce Racing	21	+25.183	3	10
6	44	Abbie Eaton	Écurie W	21	+26.075	11	8
7	32	Nerea Martí	W Series Academy	21	+26.485	4	6
8	27	Alice Powell	Racing X	21	+26.735	12	4
9	22	Belén García	Scuderia W	21	+27.244	10	2
10	5		Bunker Racing	21	+27.535	13	1
11	95	Beitske Visser	M. Forbes Racing	21	+27.764	2
12	19	Marta García		21	+29.526	7
13	37	Sabré Cook	Bunker Racing	21	+30.793	18
14	17	Ayla Ågren	M. Forbes Racing	21	+34.895	9
15	11	Vittoria Piria	Sirin Racing	21	+40.964	15
16	21	Jessica Hawkins	Racing X	21	+42.921	14
17	3	Gosia Rdest	Puma W Series Team	21	+43.716	16
18	54	Miki Koyama	Sirin Racing	20	+1 lap	17
Fastest lap set by Jamie Chadwick: 1:29.607
Source:[6]

Championship standings

	Driver		Gap
1	Jamie Chadwick	33
2	Sarah Moore	30	-3
3	Alice Powell	29	-4
4	Irina Sidorkova	22	-11
5	Fabienne Wohlwend	16	-17

See also

• 2021 Austrian Grand Prix

External links

• Official website
• Race replay

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Notes and References

1. News: CHADWICK BOOSTS W SERIES TITLE DEFENCE WITH AUSTRIA WIN. W Series. 4 June 2019.
2. Web site: 2020-11-12. W Series to support F1 in 2021 and beyond. 2020-12-08. ESPN.com. en.
3. News: W Series to kick off 2021 season with Austrian double-header. F1i.com. 20 January 2022.
4. News: W Series 2021 Spielberg 2 Classification – Practice. Motorsport Stats. 20 January 2022.
5. News: W Series 2021 Spielberg 2 Classification – Qualifying. Motorsport Stats. 20 January 2022.
6. News: W Series 2021 Spielberg 2 Classification – Race. Motorsport Stats. 20 January 2022.