W Series joined Formula 1 in America for the Miami GP as their first round of the 2022 season.
With a new broadcast partnership with Sky Sports, the all-female single-seater championship started with a bang on the new circuit surrounding the Hard Rock Stadium.
Even with two long safety car periods that interrupted the flow of the race and a red flag, race 1 was action-packed and full of talking points.
Pole-sitter, Nerea MartÃ, had an unfortunate start as she stalled at the line which allowed Jaimie Chadwick to overtake to P1 but was closely followed by Emma Kimiläinen into turn 1.
The 1st lap of the race ended under a yellow flag after Alice Powell made contact with the wall and the safety car was soon released.
After an issue with the crane, the red flag appeared and the drivers were called to the pits where Powell gave Abbi Pulling some last-minute advice.
There were questions about tire temperatures and the struggles that the drivers may have with them whilst everyone waited for the restart. With the restart called, the drivers headed to the track for a rolling start with Bianca Bustamante holding up part of the pack during the challenge of getting the car started.
Chadwick tried to back up the pack but Kimiläinen followed close behind along with everyone else.
Kimiläinen took P1 with a yellow flag in sector one after Fabienne Wohlwend hit the kerbs which forced Abbie Eaton off the track with her. Previously, Wohlwend had complained to her race engineer about the rear of her car and had a close call with the wall leading up to the collision which brought the safety car out for the 2nd time.
As the safety car was called back in, there was 1 lap to go after the 30 minutes of the race had ended.
Both Chadwick and Kimiläinen continued their battle for P1 but with Kimiläinen going wide, this let both Chadwick and Marta Garcia through.
Hunting back for her P2 position, Kimiläinen spun and fell down the order to finish P15. This meant Jess Hawkins moved up into P3.
The first race ended with Chadwick in P1, Garcia in P2 and Hawkins in P3 which saw her taking her first podium in W Series.
However, after the race, Garcia received a 10-second penalty for causing a collision, awarding Hawkins a move up to P2 and Beitske Visser took P3.
Chloe Chambers and Abbie Eaton received 30-second penalties for being out of position at the safety car line.
Race 2 brought another story to the championship…no interruptions from flags and all the drivers crossing the line at the end of the last lap. Relatively a calmer one but it was still full of excitement.
All drivers were able to launch from the line cleanly with Chadwick taking the lead into Turn 1, where behind her, Marti and Kimiläinen were battling for P2.
Learning from the first race, All the drivers appeared to air on the side of caution as they backed off slightly into the 2nd corner.
Kimiläinen briefly found herself in P2 which was quickly snatched away by Marti. Powell sat comfortably in P4 after her crash in race 1 as the front pack began to pull away.
Bruna Tomaselli found herself in the pits for a new set of tires with 22 minutes of the race to go.
A consistent battle throughout the race, Kimiläinen and Marti were wheel to wheel to cross the line fighting for P2 which Marti came out on top.
Further back in the battle for P6, a close knit fight took place between Beitiske Visser, Sarah Moore and Abbie Pulling. We saw some side by side action as Pulling and Visser both closed on Moore.
Another pit stop saw Tereza Babickova enter to fix her broken wing with 1 minute of the race to go.
Battles for the last podium place was a thrilling one to watch with Powell following closely on the back of Kimiläinen. Contact was seen at Turn 7, the same place Kimiläinen spun in Race 1.
Sadly, the collision saw Kimiläinen fall back to finish in P5 with Powell holding onto P3 with a broken wing after hitting both Kimiläinen and the wall.
At the front, another amazing dominant performance from Chadwick was displayed as she lef the race comfortably to take P1 for the 4th time in a row in W Series, with Marti in P2 and Powell in P3.
The incident between Kimiläinen and Powell is being investigated after the race so keep an eye out for news of that.
The Miami GP was always going to be interesting as it was a first in its history and was set to be one of the biggest events on the F1 calendar this year. With the addition of Las Vegas, these American races will be one to watch!
Overall, it was a brilliant race to start the season for W Series with and it was fantastic to have a doubleheader which we will only see once more in Mexico.
The next round for W Series takes place in Barcelona where Jamie Chadwick will try to maintain her lead in the driver's standings as the rest of the grid will no doubt be trying to stop her.