Defending champion Jamie Chadwick (Jenner Racing, 23, UK) completed a perfect weekend at W Series Miami presented by Hard Rock by backing up her win in Saturday’s first race with a dominant lights-to-flag victory in race two of the 2022 season-opening double-header.
The reigning double champion took her fourth straight W Series race win, and eighth overall, courtesy of an expertly controlled drive from pole position. Jamie crossed the finish line three seconds ahead of Nerea Martí (Quantfury Racing W Series Team, 20, ESP) who secured her best finish and the second podium of her W Series career. Last season’s runner-up Alice Powell (Click2Drive Bristol Street Motors Racing W Series Team, 29, UK) was a further six seconds back in third place to score her 10th W Series podium finish.
Nerea’s team-mate and compatriot Belen Garcia (Quantfury Racing W Series Team, 22, ESP) finished fourth to equal her best W Series finish. Emma Kimiläinen (Puma W Series Team, 32, FIN) started third and retained that position for most of the race, but contact with Alice on the penultimate lap dropped her to fifth.
Some fine overtaking in the closing stages saw Abbi Pulling (Racing X, 19, UK) finish sixth, one place ahead of Beitske Visser (Sirin Racing W Series Team, 27, NED). Sarah Moore (Scuderia W, 28, UK) and Marta Garcia (CortDAO Racing W Series Team, 21, ESP) were eighth and ninth. Chloe Chambers (Jenner Racing, 17, USA) completed the top 10 to score her first W Series points and finish as the highest-placed of the five drivers making their W Series debuts this weekend in support of the inaugural Formula 1® Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix.
The drivers’ second-best time during qualifying on Saturday had set the grid for race two, and the front row from race one was reversed as Jamie started from pole position and Nerea from second. Fabienne Wohlwend (CortDAO Racing W Series Team, 24, LIE) started 10th after receiving a five-place grid penalty for causing a collision in race one.
The top two retained their starting positions as they exited Turn 1, but Nerea was under pressure from Emma who started third. The Finn went up to second with a move on the inside at the entry to Turn 11, but went deep on the exit allowing Nerea to instantly regain the place. Jamie led by just under a second at the end of lap one, by which time the only changes in the top 10 saw Sarah, Fabienne and Marta move up one place each as Abbi dropped from eighth on the grid to 11th.
With five minutes gone, Emma attempted the same move on Nerea and made it stick this time to go second. Three minutes later, Bruna Tomaselli (Racing X, 24, BRA) pitted with a front-right puncture, relegating her to the rear of the field. With a third of the race gone, Nerea overtook Emma for second, but Emma fought back along the start-finish straight and re-took the position at Turn 1. Up ahead, Jamie set the fastest lap of the race to extend her lead to almost two seconds.
The battle for second continued on the next lap, and Nerea regained her starting position by overtaking Emma at Turn 11. With just under half of the 30-minutes plus one lap race gone, Alice briefly moved into the podium positions by going late on the brakes into Turn 1, but Emma dipped back under Alice on the exit to stay in third. That put Alice under pressure from Belen, but the former held on as the pair went wheel-to-wheel for several corners in the middle sector of the lap.
On the penultimate lap, Alice and Emma made contact at Turn 17, sending Emma spinning and down to fifth behind Belen. Alice suffered front-wing damage but nursed the car home in third, although the stewards were investigating that incident after the race.
Jamie upped her pace to regain a buffer of almost two seconds to Nerea going into the final lap, and the champion remained error-free to complete a perfect weekend.
