Kimilainen takes W Series pole after Zandvoort timing confusion

Photo: W Series

Emma Kimilainen emerged as the fastest driver in W Series qualifying at Zandvoort, although timing issues left the order of the grid in some doubt.

Title rivals Jamie Chadwick and Alice Powell had been fighting for pole through the session, and there was a late red flag stoppage caused by Sabre Cook needlessly letting her car reverse into the gravel and it then getting beached.

There was time for just a handful of laps after the second restart, with an earlier one having occurred after Fabienne Wohlwend failed to turn in time at the exit of the banked third corner and was launched over the exit kerbs and into the barriers.

Miki Koyama and Abbie Eaton were able to jump up the order to seventh and fifth in the brief running at the end of the session, and then after the chequered flag was waved Kimilainen rose from third to first and took pole by 0.074 seconds.

Not long after that the whole top 10 started to change shape with faster laptimes appearing, after Powell initially being shown as in first place by several seconds, and there was a closely matched gaggle of cars in fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh.

Powell was classified as second fastest ahead of Chadwick, having posted her fastest lap moments before the red flag to pip Chadwick to what was pole, and Nerea Marti was fourth.

Pushed up to fifth after the finish of the session was Abbi Pulling, contesting her second W Series race, then Jessica Hawkins and Eaton.

Less than a tenth of a second covered eighth to 11th, with Sarah Moore leading Belen Garcia, Miki Koyama and Vicky Piria. Like Koyama, Beitske Visser had also been higher up at the end of qualifying but she will start her home race from 12th.

Qualifying results