Powell Wins Hungary to Stop Chadwick's Streak

Back at the front, the jostling for position between Powell and Visser had allowed Chadwick to get close enough to attack P2. The start-finish straight was the place to pass, and Chadwick's confidence on the brakes let her out brake her Dutch rival on the inside line into Turn 1, and she was up to second place. A well-positioned defense on the apex of the first corner prevented Visser from fighting back into Turn 2, and Chadwick was free to chase down Powell for the race victory.

However, any further progress through the order for the double champion would have to wait, as rookie driver Bianca Bustamante had crashed into the barriers. The W Academy racer badly damaged her car's suspension but tried to recover to the pit lane. Unfortunately for her, the uphill pit entry meant she didn't have enough speed to recover to her garage. With the car blocking the pit lane, the race director required the Safety Car's services to allow the marshals to get a JCB on the track.

Even though Chadwick could close in on Powell thanks to the Safety Car slow-down, there were no further passes at the front when green flag conditions returned. The Scuderia W pairing of Sarah Moore and Abbie Eaton traded places towards the lower point-scoring positions, but there'd be no further change of the podium places, allowing Powell to become the first non-Chadwick winner of 2022.

Speaking to Fortloc after the race, Powell explained that she wasn't too worried about the Safety Car, despite it potentially threatening her P1:

"I was a little bit frustrated, but I knew we had the pace, and it was always just going to be about getting a good Safety Car restart. We got a good Safety Car restart and then controlled it after that."

Some tire graining appeared on Powell's front right Hancook after the restart, but she explained that this wasn't any concern and didn't affect her pace:

"I think it would have just been [because] we started fully on a dry setup. We changed on the grid, and then it was a little bit sketchy at the start. I don't know whether pushing that front right a little bit when the conditions weren't ideal ended up killing it a little bit. I only really paid attention to it under the Safety Car, but it actually felt alright on track."

Chadwick's late-braking moves into Turn 1 helped her progress through the field, and she acknowledged a confidence difference from her Qualifying performance:

"I had a problem with the front brakes [which] were locking yesterday, so it caused me to have a lot of rear lock-ups. I didn't know if I was going mad or if I was struggling a lot yesterday. I just knew, whatever the case was today, that I just wanted to get confidence again. And make sure I could make amends for where I was struggling yesterday. Fortunately, straight away, I just had so much more confidence, and I could make the most of that despite the tricky conditions."

Visser could enjoy the support of the Dutch fans who had traveled en masse for Max Verstappen to Hungary in her first European W Series podium since 2019. She felt that backing on the rostrum:

"It's very, very good to be back on the podium. I saw many Dutch fans out there, so that was cool to see as well. I think last year, I had a lot of issues and bad luck going on, so this year things are going back the right way. Once things start to go well, then you get in the right flow again, and everything seems to come easier."

W Series now has a long break before returning in October to support the Singapore Grand Prix. An announcement last week stated that W Series would not race in Japan as scheduled and instead stage its sole Asian race at the equatorial city-state.