The 2019 W Series Hockenheim round (also commercially referred to as #WRace1) was the first round of the
2019 W Series, and took place at the
Hockenheimring
The Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg () is a motor racing circuit situated in the Rhine valley near the town of Hockenheim in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, located on the Bertha Benz Memorial Route. Amongst other motor racing events, it has hos ...
in
Germany on 4 May 2019. The event was an undercard to the
2019 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters round at the same circuit.
Report
Background
The event was the inaugural round of the
W Series, and the first professionally organised female-only motorsport event since the final round of the
Formula Woman
Formula Woman, which was known as the Privilege Insurance Formula Woman Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a female-only one make racing series started in 2004 in the UK. It was inspired by the lack of female drivers in other series and w ...
championship for
Caterhams was held at
Brands Hatch in 2006.
61 drivers successfully submitted applications to contest the championship, and were required to attend an evaluation day to become part of the 18-driver grid. This evaluation, held at Austria's Wachauring, cut the number of applicants from 61 to 28, with the remainder going on to test the series-spec
Tatuus–
Alfa Romeo F3 T-318 at the Circuito de Almería before series judges selected the 18 regular drivers and 4 reserve drivers.
Only 54 drivers attended the 26–28 January evaluation, which consisted of 10 modules related to teamwork, fitness and media preparation along with various driving-based skill tests. Among those who did not advance to the test day were former
GP3 Series drivers
Samin Gómez and
Carmen Jordá
Carmen Jordá Buades (born 28 May 1988) is a Spanish motor racing driver. From 2015 to 2017, she was a development driver for the Lotus and Renault Sport Formula One teams. Her appointment by Lotus saw her become just the eleventh woman in hist ...
(the latter a series advocate who did not attend), former
Australian Formula 3 driver
Chelsea Angelo and former
U.S.F1600 champion
Ayla Ågren
Ayla Ågren (born 23 July 1993 in Bærum) is a Norwegian-Swedish female racing driver. Representing Norway, she currently competes in the W Series.
Biography
Following a decade in karting across Europe and Scandinavia, Ågren moved to the Unit ...
. The five-day test with the series cars on 22–27 March further whittled down the list of applicants, with the likes of
ARCA Series
The ARCA Menards Series is an American stock car racing, stock car series, the premier division of the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA). It is considered a minor, semi-professional league of stock car racing, used as a feeder series into ...
driver
Natalie Decker and former
MSV Formula 2 driver
Natalia Kowalska
Natalia Kowalska (born 31 December 1989 in Koszalin) is a Polish racing driver.
Career
Kowalska started her career in Kart racing in Poland. In 2007, she moved to formula racing, driving a partial program in the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern Eu ...
also missing the cut.
The only proper testing for the series regular and reserve drivers was held at the
Lausitzring a fortnight prior to the Hockenheim event, with
Marta García emerging quickest.
Practice
First practice was topped by reigning
MRF Challenge champion
Jamie Chadwick, who put the #55 half a second ahead of the experienced Finn
Emma Kimiläinen and
Ferrari sportscar driver
Fabienne Wohlwend
Fabienne Wohlwend (born 7 November 1997 in Vaduz) is a female racing driver from Liechtenstein who competes in the W Series.
Biography Formula 4
Wohlwend entered car racing in 2016, having been successful in junior karting in Liechtenstein and ...
. Clutch issues sidelined
Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain driver
Esmee Hawkey whilst American
Shea Holbrook
Shea Holbrook (born April 10, 1990) is an American professional racing driver, entrepreneur and spokeswoman. Currently, she is in retirement starting a family.
Drafting with Denise Mueller-Korenek, Holbrook drove a dragster supporting world recor ...
brought out the only red flag of the session.
The top three remained the same in the second session, despite the onset of rain. The gaps however increased from 0.5 to 0.9 seconds across the trio of Chadwick, Kimiläinen and Wohlwend. Drivers struggled to adapt to the conditions, with both Tasmin Pepper and
Jessica Hawkins spinning into the gravel and bringing out red flags – the latter returning to the garage on the back of a tow-truck.
Series reserve drivers
Sarah Bovy and
Vivien Keszthelyi
Vivien Keszthelyi (born 7 December 2000) is a Hungarian racing driver who started her career at the age of 13. She is a member of the Audi Sport Racing Academy.
Keszthelyi started her professional career in 2014, in the Suzuki Swift Cup Europe ...
joined the regular field of 18 for Friday practice. In Practice 1, Bovy placed 11th and Keszthelyi 17th, however both were at the bottom of the timesheets in the wet second session.
Qualifying
Qualifying was held in wet conditions.
Beitske Visser set the early pace, however ended up watching the majority of the session from the sidelines with turbocharger failure, and Chadwick soon surpassed her. By the mid-portion of the session, Chadwick put herself 1.7 seconds ahead of the rest of the pack led by
Sarah Moore. Wohlwend was the one to break the 1-second margin held by Chadwick with ten minutes remaining, however the Briton continued to set the pace becoming the first to set a time under the 2-minute mark in the damp session. The red flag came out with 3 and a half minutes remaining following a spin into the gravel at the Sachs Kurve for
Alice Powell
Alice Elizabeth Fraser Powell (born 26 January 1993) is a British racing driver. In 2010, she became the first woman to win a Formula Renault championship and in 2012 became the first woman to score points in the GP3 Series. In 2014, she returne ...
, and the session would not restart. As a result, Chadwick scored the first pole position in W Series history, with a large gap back to Wohlwend and a similar margin to Moore in 3rd.
Race
The race started at 4:10pm CET on a drying track. Both Chadwick and Wohlwend both had good initial launches however Wohlwend – starting on the wet side of the circuit – encountered wheelspin whilst going up through the gears, dropping her to 5th by turn one. Both Kimiläinen and
Sabré Cook stalled off the start, however Kimiläinen would not advance beyond the hairpin as
Megan Gilkes
Megan Gilkes (born 6 November 2000 in Richmond Hill, Ontario) is a Canadian former racing driver who last competed in F1 Academy. She previously competed in the now defunct W Series in 2019.
Biography
A third-generation racer, Gilkes began kar ...
suffered brake failure behind her and would smack into the front-right corner of the Finn, eliminating both on the spot and bringing out the Safety Car. Before the Safety Car was deployed however, Chadwick ran wide on a damp part of the track and handed the lead of the race to Alice Powell. On the restart, Chadwick got back past Powell whilst Marta García moved herself into 3rd place at the expense of Moore, and the top three began to pull away from the rest of the field. The battle for fourth, fifth and sixth between Visser, Moore and Wohlwend also began to pull away from Esmee Hawkey in 7th, who was struggling for pace and came under attack from
Vittoria Piria
Vittoria "Vicky" Piria (born 11 November 1993 in Milan) is an Italian-British racing driver who currently races in Formula Renault Eurocup and W Series.
Career
Karting
Piria grew up in Perugia in Umbria, she began karting in 2003 and raced pri ...
and the hard-charging
Miki Koyama. Koyama made an opportunistic move on Piria, with the Italian spinning at the hairpin and collecting a polystyrene advertising board. With two laps to go, Koyama put a forceful move on Hawkey, which sent the Brit down the order and out of the points. Despite the fastest lap for the Japanese driver, she could not close the gap between herself and Wohlwend by the flag. Chadwick went on to win the first W Series race ahead of Powell and García on the podium, with a gap back to the group of Visser, Moore and Wohlwend with Koyama coming from 17th on the grid to finish 7th, with the points rounded out by
Tasmin Pepper (who also made a comeback having started 16th),
Gosia Rdest
Małgorzata Agnieszka Łazarczyk (née Rdest, born 14 January 1993 in Żyrardów) is a Polish female racing driver and businesswoman. She currently competes in the Alpine Elf Europa Cup.
Racing career
Rdest entered car racing in 2012 when sh ...
and
Caitlin Wood.
Classification
Practice
Qualifying
Race
Championship standings
See also
*
2019 DTM Hockenheim round
The 2019 DTM Hockenheim round is a motor racing event for the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters held between 4 and 5 May 2019. The event, part of the 33rd season of the DTM, was held at the Hockenheimring in Germany.
Results Race 1 Qualifying
Race
...
References
External links
Official website
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Hockenheim W Series
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