W Series Austria: Champion Chadwick claims Red Bull Ring pole

The reigning champion set a time of 1m28.473s to secure her position at the front of the pack for Saturday’s race.

Visser, last year’s runner-up, joins her on the front row driving for M Forbes Motorsport, while Bruna Tomaselli (Veloce) will start third after Emma Kimilainen, driving for Ecurie W was handed a three-place penalty.

W Series Academy’s Nerea Marti starts fourth, while team-mate Irina Sidorkova will start fifth.

Veloce driver Chadwick had a difficult weekend in the first round last week, qualifying eighth because of a cracked carbon pipe before finishing the race sixth after a collision, but was quickest in this morning’s practice session.

Powell, who started on pole last weekend and won the race, will start in 12^th after she was plagued by a “very frustrating” car issue throughout practice and qualifying.

Jessica Hawkins was the first car out onto the track, which remained dry despite spots of rain during the earlier Formula 1 practice session.

Just two minutes into qualifying, the session was red-flagged after Sabre Cook spun her Bunker Racing car while trying to warm up her tyres and went off into the gravel at Turn 7, leaving her beached.

Powell led the pack back out onto the track five minutes later in her Racing X-sponsored car, followed by team-mate Hawkins.

Chadwick quickly topped the timesheet with a 1m30.522s, two-tenths clear of second place Sidorkova, who did come back with a faster time but had it deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 9.

Chadwick then managed to set a 1m29.544s, the first lap of the session below 1m30s, before a slightly quicker time was deleted at Turn 10.

Tomaselli was stuck in the pits for some time with a wheel retention nut issue, but managed to get back out on track.

At the halfway point, Chadwick led from Abbie Eaton, Vicky Piria and Visser. Sarah Moore finally got out onto the track after spending the first 15 minutes in the pits, while Kimilainen emerged with just ten minutes to go.

Shortly after, Tomaselli managed to take the top spot by just over a tenth after getting a tow on the start-finish straight, before Chadwick reclaimed the lead.

Three drivers will have to serve three-place grid penalties for the race after making contact during last weekend’s race – Kimilainen, Piria and Cook.

Cla	Drivers	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Jamie Chadwick	17	1'28.473
2	Beitske Visser	16	1'28.591	0.118
3	Emma Kimilainen	13	1'28.822	0.349
4	Bruna Tomaselli	15	1'28.865	0.392
5	Nerea Martí	17	1'29.013	0.540
6	Irina Sidorkova	17	1'29.052	0.579
7	Marta Garcia	17	1'29.109	0.636
8	Sarah Moore	14	1'29.173	0.700
9	Ayla Agren	17	1'29.276	0.803
10	Belén García	17	1'29.348	0.875
11	Abbie Eaton	17	1'29.561	1.088
12	Vicky Piria	19	1'29.615	1.142
13	Alice Powell	16	1'29.633	1.160
14	Fabienne Wohlwend	18	1'29.643	1.170
15	Jessica Hawkins	18	1'29.696	1.223
16	Gosia Rdest	17	1'29.760	1.287
17	Miki Koyama	18	1'29.773	1.300
18	Sabre Cook	0
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