Emma Kimilainen scored her first win in the W Series on Saturday in the Netherlands.
Emma Kimilainen scored a maiden win in the W Series on Saturday as Jamie Chadwick extended her championship lead heading into the season finale at Brands Hatch on Aug. 11.
Kimilainen has had a rough time of it in 2019. Qualifying well in the opener at Hockenheim, she was caught up in another drivers’ accident on the first lap of the race and the resulting neck injury put her out of action for two further races. Coming back with an impressive performance at the Norisring, Kimilainen delivered a W Series masterclass in Assen to convert a first pole into a first trip to the top step of the podium.
Off the line, Alice Powell was able to get the jump on pole sitter Kimilainen, but behind the top order, Tasmin Pepper got a slide on through turn one and was collected by the helpless Miki Koyama. The contact brought out the safety car as Koyama’s car was recovered.
Just as Powell had taken Kimilainen for the lead, Caitlin Wood had managed to get past Beitske Visser for P4 at the start.
Only out for the one lap, the safety car was quickly withdrawn and the racing was able to resume.
For U.S. drivers Sabre’ Cook and Shea Holbrook, the afternoon very quickly went downhill. Cook was handed a drive through penalty for being out of place on the grid, lining her car up a row further back than she should have done, while Holbrook was forced to pit for a new nose.
In the title race, Visser knew that she couldn’t let Chadwick disappear from view so made a bold move on Wood. Making the move stick, Visser set off in chase of her championship rival.
Powell, with a 1.1-second gap to Kimilainen looked in control but by the time the race reached lap-seven, the gap had shrunk to just 0.6-seconds and Kimilainen was piling on the pressure.
With 10 minutes to go, the battles between Powell and Kimilainen and Chadwick and Visser both began to reach boiling point and lap 11, just as the clock dipped under the 10-minute mark, saw a change of lead.
Kimilainen dipped her nose close to the rear wheel of Powell into turn one and successfully forced an error from the British driver. Powell ran wide and bounced over the curbs which allowed Kimilainen to pass on the inside of turn 2. Powell fought hard around the outside to keep position but Kimilainen was never going to relinquish the lead.
The Finn built up a commanding 5.7-second lead to bring home her first win in the championship.
“As we say in Finland, ‘If you want to win, hire a Finn’,” said Kimilainen. “It was a really good weekend. From the first free practice I knew that I had the speed and I was just looking for a good moment in the race to take the lead back after a bad start.”
Behind, Visser was trying every trick in the book to get past Chadwick. It was clear that Visser had stronger pace than the championship leader and this was made clearer still when a lockup meant she dropped back slightly, only to be back on Chadwick’s gearbox one lap later.
Unfortunately for the home crowd, Visser was unable to execute a pass but the result still means that she is in with a shout of title glory in the season finale at Brands Hatch in August.
For Chadwick though, she heads into her home race with a 13-point margin and knows that a podium finish of any kind will seal the title.
“I don’t make life easy for myself at all,” said Chadwick when asked about the battle with Visser. “I made a couple of mistakes after the safety car which allowed Beitske to close up quite a lot so I was a bit frustrated with myself, especially given the gap I did have. From there I was just managing the gap to Beitske.”
Race Results
Pos.
Driver
Nationality
Time
1
Emma Kimilainen
Finland
2
Alice Powell
UK
+5.767
3
Jamie Chadwick
UK
+8.762
4
Beitske Visser
Netherlands
+9.363
5
Caitlin Wood
Australia
+18.579
6
Gosia Rdest
Poland
+20.077
7
Jessica Hawkins
UK
+22.481
8
Vicky Piria
Italy
+25.105
9
Marta Garcia
Spain
+25.636
10
Sarah Moore
UK
+25.839
11
Esmee Hawkey
UK
+33.919
12
Naomi Schiff
Germany
+41.869
13
Sabre Cook
USA
+50.614
14
Megan Gilkes
Canada
+55.456
15
Fabienne Wohlwend
Lichtenstein
+1:04.644
16
Shea Holbrook
USA
+1 Lap
Tasmin Pepper
South Africa
DNF
Miki Koyama
Japan
DNF
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