Marta Garcia scored her second pole position in W Series showing true composure in a soaked Singapore qualifying that ended with red flags. Garcia displayed her talent in wet weather conditions by posting an impressive lap time of 2:30.762 which took her to her first pole position since the inaugural season of W Series in 2019. The Spaniard was closely followed by Beitske Visser in second – a mere 0.087s behind – and Alice Powell in third.
Powell and Visser are currently level on 68 points and sharing second place in the drivers’ championship behind leader Jamie Chadwick. It is possible for Chadwick to be crowned W Series champion this weekend – providing she finishes higher than Powell, Visser and Pulling – however the Brit was unable to reach higher than eighth during the interrupted qualifying session and so will start behind all three of her closest competitors.
Plagued by severe rain throughout, a red flag was shown with 17 minutes on the clock though giving the tight schedule of the timetable, the session restarted with 15 minutes remaining. Though the session was declared as restarting, the red flag remained at the end of the pit lane causing great confusion amongst all, Alice Powell reflected that “it was frantic, and no one knew what was going on.” With severe rain continuing to fall after the restart, the decision was made to red-flag the session for a second time and bring it to an end.
Hear from the top 3
Marta Garcia: “I like the rain. I am really, really happy with P1. This is an amazing track and I already loved it yesterday during practice.”
“I felt really comfortable out there in the rain, it was quite stable, and I had so much fun. I hope it rains tomorrow as it looks like I have the pace to be there and I’m looking forward to the race.”
Beitske Visser: “That was crazy. It started raining just before the session, so we went out on wets and knew there was more rain coming.”
“Let’s see what the weather does tomorrow as, either dry or wet, all looks good. I’m impressed with the amount of grip we have here both in the dry and the wet, but the aquaplaning starts quickly when it rains.
Alice Powell: “I was surprised the session even restarted as you could probably swim from Turn 5 to Turn 7. I had really good track position and just made a mistake when I needed to not make a mistake. I struggled even before it started to rain with traction, but that is something to talk about tomorrow if it rains again, so I have a little bit of work to do.”
“I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow. I don’t really mind whether it is wet or dry as there is no room for error here – in either case, if you go off, you’re going to hit the wall. I am starting P3 so visibility won’t be great if it’s raining, but I’m the highest of the people with the dry times from practice so, if it is dry, that is something to take into account.”