Marta Garcia makes the most of tough conditions to take W Series’ pole in Singapore

1 October 2022, Singapore – Spanish driver Marta Garcia has snatched a shock pole position for Sunday’s W Series race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, with the grid jumbled by wet and treacherous conditions that saw title hopeful Jamie Chadwick down the order in eighth place.

Garcia, securing her first pole since 2019, beat Beitske Visser to Singapore’s top spot by just 0.087sec, with the pair over five tenths of a second up on the series’ most recent race winner Alice Powell in third. Belen Garcia, unrelated to Marta, is fourth, while Jessica Hawkins closed out the top five.

Hawkins pipped her compatriot Abbi Pulling, who is part of the Alpine F1 Team driver academy, by 17 one thousandths of a second, and starts in sixth. Further back in seventh is Sarah Moore, one of five British drivers in the top-10. The 28-year-old scored her best result of the season so far at the last round in Hungary, where she was again in seventh.

The shock continued with Jamie Chadwick left eighth, with her third-straight W Series title on the line tomorrow. The Brit can lift that crown if she either wins the outright, or outscores her rivals Visser, Pulling and Powell tomorrow in the 30 minutes plus one lap race.

"The goal in Singapore is to win the title and my approach to the weekend won’t change,” said Chadwick at the start of the weekend. “It's too complicated to work out all the scenarios with the points and then drive tactically. I'll just go out there and do the best job I can.”

But, up at the front Garcia has a strong chance to secure her first win since 2019, which was at W Series’ fourth-ever race held at Germany’s Norisring. There she beat Visser – who joins the Spaniard on the front row tomorrow.