Chadwick leads practice at Hockenheim

Jamie Chadwick in the wet 2nd session
Jamie Chadwick in the wet 2nd session

Jamie Chadwick topped the opening two W Series practice sessions Friday at Hockenheim. The British driver's lap time of 1:38.65s edged Emma Kimilainen in the opening dry session by 0.36 seconds, before topping Kimilainen in a wet second session by over 7-tenths of a second.

The W Series has selected its drivers on merit and they are not required to bring financial backing. A lack of funding has been key in preventing many women from furthering their careers in motor sport. The intention is to change this by putting the women on track in a six-race season, promoting themselves, gaining experience and improving their chances to go racing in other series, all the while inspiring a new generation of women and girls.

Chadwick, who was the first woman to win the British GT championship, was enthused after climbing from her car. “To see 18 females on the grid and as competitive as they all are is groundbreaking for the sport," she said. “Hopefully it really will see the rise of women in motor sport.

“There is so much talk about getting more women into the sport but not enough is actually done. This really is a step in the right direction. Ideally we would see more women racing men at the top level but until then we have 18 female drivers racing in Formula Three cars, which we didn’t have before. The level is high and there really is going to be good racing."

The series runs as part of the German Touring car championship, DTM’s, race meetings. Very popular in Germany, DTM pulls huge crowds and if they had any impression that the female lineup presented artifice or novelty it had been dispelled by the end of the first session.

Qualifying will take place tomorrow followed by the series' inaugural race tomorrow afternoon.

Practice 1

POS DRIVER GAP LAPS
1 Jamie Chadwick 1m38.650s 19
2 Emma Kimilainen 0.360s 15
3 Fabienne Wohlwend 0.422s 18
4 Naomi Schiff 0.526s 20
5 Beitske Visser 0.576s 18
6 Sarah Moore 0.890s 19
7 Miki Koyama 0.918s 16
8 Alice Powell 0.947s 19
9 Tasmin Pepper 0.948s 19
10 Marta Garcia 1.131s 19
11 Sarah Bovy 1.143s 19
12 Caitlin Wood 1.423s 19
13 Megan Gilkes 1.534s 19
14 Vicky Piria 1.714s 19
15 Gosia Rdest 1.813s 19
16 Sabre Cook 1.891s 17
17 Vivien Keszthelyi 2.127s 20
18 Jessica Hawkins 2.134s 13
19 Shea Holbrook 7.225s 7

Practice 2

POS DRIVER GAP LAPS
1 Jamie Chadwick 1m56.007s 19
2 Emma Kimilainen 0.774s 16
3 Fabienne Wohlwend 0.997s 17
4 Beitske Visser 1.218s 18
5 Alice Powell 1.317s 17
6 Sarah Moore 1.507s 16
7 Marta Garcia 2.152s 16
8 Vicky Piria 2.248s 16
9 Caitlin Wood 2.764s 16
10 Miki Koyama 2.824s 17
11 Esmee Hawkey 3.706s 14
12 Megan Gilkes 3.917s 17
13 Jessica Hawkins 4.650s 11
14 Naomi Schiff 5.504s 16
15 Tasmin Pepper 6.382s 5
16 Sabre Cook 6.407s 11
17 Gosia Rdest 6.644s 17
18 Shea Holbrook 6.761s 15
19 Sarah Bovy 8.385s 7
20 Vivien Keszthelyi 46.025s 3