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Emma to miss the next race at Misano, Italy Emma Kimilainen Emma Kimilainen, 29, from Finland, has been advised by Hintsa Performance, W Series’ contracted health and wellbeing experts, not to drive at Misano, Italy, this coming Friday and Saturday. Both W Series’ reserve drivers – Sarah Bovy, 29, from Belgium, and Vivien Keszthelyi, 18, from Hungary – will drive on both days, completing a line-up of 19 entrants. Emma Kimilainen said: “I’m very disappointed not to be able to race at Misano this weekend, but I understand the advice I’ve been given and I’ll abide by it. “I feel I’ve been on top of the W Series car in the practice sessions and qualifying sessions I completed at Hockenheim and Zolder, and it’s obviously a great pity that, through no fault of my own, I didn’t get a chance to translate that pace into race results. “But my hope is now to be fully fit for Norisring in early July, so that I can finish the W Series season with three strong performances at Norisring, at Assen and at Brands Hatch.” Dave Ryan, W Series Racing Director, said: “We’re disappointed for Emma, who has been competent and quick whenever she’s driven the W Series car, but of course we look forward to welcoming her back as and when she’s fit enough to compete again.
“In the meantime, we’re happy to be able to offer the opportunity to race at Misano to both Sarah [Bovy] and Vivien [Keszthelyi], our two reserve drivers.
“Sarah and Vivien were both entered for the W Series race at Zolder last month, albeit at the eleventh hour, but Sarah didn’t even get to start and Vivien was involved in a collision with another competitor. Therefore, it’s a positive development for them both, and indeed for all of us, that they’ll travel to Misano with the foreknowledge that they’ll be competing in both practice sessions, in qualifying and in the race. “We hope they’ll both work hard with their engineers, will duly perform well, and will therefore be able to record good results come Saturday afternoon.”
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Qualifying looked to be interesting and generally followed practice with a wet session. Jamie Chadwick topped the sessions all weekend and produced a clear pole with a 1:58.894 and nearly 2 seconds faster than second place Fabienne Wohlwend.  The race was shown live on Channel 4 and although didn’t run smoothly, proved to be entertaining. There were lots of complaints on social media about poor sound quality and lack of coverage in the USA. The lack of live or recorded qualifying is also disappointing as this can be some of the more interesting highlights of a driver’s ability and the reason behind this competition. The start was very fast, with lights on, lights out speed. Most did get a good start and Jamie was quite a distance ahead after the first corner. The race had turned out to be a dry race, although damp areas were present off the racing line. The first lap brought a deal of excitement to the event, with Jamie locking up and running wide, allowing Sarah Moore to take the lead from 3rd place. A crash on turn 6 between Megan Gilkes (CAN) and Emma Kimilainam (FIN), brought out the safety car. Megan miss-judged her braking on a damp line and T-Boned Emma. Following the race re-start, Alice Powell (GBR) came through from 6th place to a P2 position and pushed Jamie to the end. Jamie looked in control all the way except for her mistake on lap one. The 18 year old Spanish contestant, Marta Garcia looked exceptionally strong and managed P3 for her first podium. The mid-field had some good, close racing, with several drivers making up good positions from a poor qualifying. Overall, the race was exciting and close and produced a good display of the drivers' talents. The next race is Zolder in Belgium, and each driver gets a different car and engineer so it’s all down to the driver. A few cars did have issues, both before and during the race, and it is hoped these are ironed out before the next race. A lot of social media comments related to the car identity, and I agree it is very difficult to tell which car is which. It would be better for the drivers to have different colours and just keep the car body as their own for each race to help with identification. I do hope the people that make the decisions are looking at the followers' comments. Big race numbers are not enough.  The W Series first practice at the 2.842 mile Hockenheim circuit just completed with the following times set by all 20 drivers including the two reserve drivers of Vivien Keszthely and Sarah Bovy who both turned in very competitive times. Only Esmee hawkey failed to run due to a clutch issue with her car. The second practice is due shortly.   The all-female W Series have announced their 18 finalists out of the 28 competitors with 4 reserves. Following 4 days of trials, driving the Tatuus F-318 F3 car around the Circuit de Almeria racetrack in Spain On day 3 race director Dave Ryan was confident that 12 of the competitors were sufficiently skilled to move to being selected. This allowed more time for the 16 that were left to prove themselves.  The final list of finalists are:-: Jamie Chadwick, UK Sabre Cook, USA Marta Garcia, Spain Megan Gilkes, Canada Esmee Hawkey, UK Jessica Hawkins, UK Shea Holbrook, USA Emma Kimilainen, Finland Miki Koyama, Japan Sarah Moore, UK Tasmin Pepper, South Africa Vicky Piria, Italy Alice Powell, UK Gosia Rdest, Poland Naomi Schiff, Belgium Beitske Visser, Netherlands Fabienne Wohlwend, Liechtenstein Caitlin Wood, Australia These are the four reserves for W Series: Sarah Bovy, Belgium Vivien Keszthelyi, Hungary Stephane Kox, Netherlands Francesca Linossi, Italy The 5 girls from the UK all got through.  Although they must be upset, the following didn’t make it :-
Natalie Decker, 21, USA Grace Gui, 27, China Natalia Kowalska, 28, Poland Milou Mets, 28, Netherlands Shirley Van Der Lof, 31, Netherlands Alexandra Whitley 25 Australia |
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