2021 Budapest W Series round explained

Type:	CUST
Description:	Event 4 of 7 of the 2021 W Series
Country:	HUN
Grand Prix:	W Series
Gp Suffix:	Budapest round
Year:	2021
Official Name:	2021 W Series Budapest round
Location:	Hungaroring, Mogyoród, Pest County, Budapest
Course:	Permanent circuit
Course Km:	4.381
Course Mi:	2.722
Distance Laps:	19
Distance Km:	83.239
Distance Mi:	51.718
Pole Country:	GBR
Pole Team:	Veloce Racing
Pole Time:	1:42.735
Fast Driver:	Jamie Chadwick
Fast Team:	Veloce Racing
Fast Time:	1:43.611
Fast Country:	GBR
First Driver:	Jamie Chadwick
First Country:	GBR
First Team:	Veloce Racing
Second Driver:	Alice Powell
Second Country:	GBR
Second Team:	Racing X
Third Driver:	Nerea Martí
Third Country:	ESP

The 2021 W Series Budapest round was the fourth round of seven in the 2021 W Series, and took place at the Hungaroring in Budapest on 31 July 2021.^[1] The event was an undercard to the 2021 Formula One World Championship round at the same circuit.^[2]

Report

Background

Caitlin Wood replaced Abbi Pulling in the Puma W Series Team.^[3]

Alice Powell led the championship on 54 points, 6 points ahead of Jamie Chadwick.

Race

Chadwick stormed away from pole position to take a commanding lead into the first corner, while Irina Sidorkova hung around the outside of Beitske Visser to take fourth. Further back, Ayla Ågren and Fabienne Wohlwend ran wide – the Norwegian slowed suddenly and caused Wohlwend to hit the back of her car, launch into the air and broke her front wing in the process, requiring a pit-stop.

Chadwick and Powell began to sprint away from Nerea Martí in third by around a second a lap, as Sidorkova and Visser began battling over fourth. Other battles in the field included Marta García and Emma Kimiläinen for sixth, as well as Belén García and a slow-starting Bruna Tomaselli for eighth. Sabré Cook meanwhile had made up five places from the start but began to fall back through the field as Miki Koyama overtook her for 13th, not helped by her side mirrors bending from an impact with a kerb. A bad day was made worse for the Bunker team when Wohlwend, who was suffering from further damage after the first lap incident, went a lap down after her pit-stop and then chose to retire the car after half-distance.

Marta García had begun to pull away from Kimiläinen but a mistake from the Spaniard saw her run wide at turn 11, allowing the Écurie W driver to draw alongside and overtake into turn 13. Another driver making moves was Koyama, who closed on the back of Abbie Eaton quicker than she was expecting – light front to rear contact was made at turn 2, before the Japanese driver also braved it around the outside of turn 3 to pass The Grand Tour test driver for 12th.

Chadwick eased to victory with a ten-second gap to title rival Powell in second. Martí scored her first podium and the second for the Academy team, team-mate Sidorkova holding out Visser and coming in 5 seconds behind Martí. Series returnee Caitlin Wood started and finished 17th after some mechanical issues on the rear end of her car led to misaligned tracking.

Classification

Qualifying

		Team	Time/
1	55	Veloce Racing	1:42.735
2	27	Racing X	+0.269
3	32	W Series Academy	+0.307
4	95	M. Forbes Motorsport	+0.445
5	51	W Series Academy	+0.644
6	97	Veloce Racing	+0.875
7	19		+1.055
8	7	Écurie W	+1.129
9	22	Scuderia W	+1.163
10	21	Racing X	+1.173
11	11	Sirin Racing	+1.474
12	17	M. Forbes Motorsport	+1.573
13	5	Bunker Racing	+1.607
14	44	Écurie W	+1.846
15	54	Sirin Racing	+2.101
16	26	Scuderia W	+2.134
17	20	Puma W Series Team	+2.336
18	37	Bunker Racing	+2.687
Source:^[5]

Race

		Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid
1	55	Jamie Chadwick	Veloce Racing	19	32:59.370	1	25
2	27	Alice Powell	Racing X	19	+10.237	2	18
3	32	Nerea Martí	W Series Academy	19	+15.395	3	15
4	51	Irina Sidorkova	W Series Academy	19	+20.931	5	12
5	95	Beitske Visser	M. Forbes Motorsport	19	+21.618	4	10
6	7	Emma Kimiläinen	Écurie W	19	+26.423	8	8
7	19	Marta García		19	+28.706	7	6
8	22	Belén García	Scuderia W	19	+30.790	9	4
9	97	Bruna Tomaselli	Veloce Racing	19	+31.172	6	2
10	21	Jessica Hawkins	Racing X	19	+37.368	10	1
11	17	Ayla Ågren	M. Forbes Motorsport	19	+38.356	12
12	54	Miki Koyama	Sirin Racing	19	+42.047	15
13	44	Abbie Eaton	Écurie W	19	+47.892	14
14	37	Sabré Cook	Bunker Racing	19	+48.615	18
15	26	Sarah Moore	Scuderia W	19	+49.265	16
16	11	Vittoria Piria	Sirin Racing	19	+50.722	11
17	20	Caitlin Wood	Puma W Series Team	19	+51.506	17
DNF	5	Fabienne Wohlwend	Bunker Racing	9	Collision damage	13
Fastest lap set by Jamie Chadwick: 1:43.611
Source:^[6]