Caitlin Wood has climbed the W Series Esports League standings overnight after a successful outing in the series’ third round at Brands Hatch.
Despite her best result coming in the last race with a third place finish, Wood managed to secure three top 10 finishes during the round, which was enough to see her move up the standings to third place outright.
Wood started the round well, claiming pole position once again over series leader Beitske Visser, but soon found herself 14th after a mistake at the end of the first lap saw her on the grass.
While Visser went on to win the first race over Alice Powell and Marta Garcia, Wood recovered well and worked her way back into the contest to finish eighth.
In the reverse-grid feature, Irina Sidorkova started from the front row after a horror first race and made amends straight away, replacing leader Miki Koyama before the first turn. Once the Russian teenager got the lead, she never looked back –
holding onto first place from start to finish.
Finishing second and third was Visser and American Sabre Cook respectively, while Wood was able to make up six positions throughout the race to finish seventh after starting from 13th.
The Australian started the round’s final race on the second row next to the race two winner, who instantly piled on the pressure on the race’s leading pair in Garcia and Visser and eventually took the lead with six minutes to go in the race.
As the race went on, Visser wasn’t bowing down and continued to fight for her lead back, only to spin into the barrier with just two minutes remaining, leaving Sidorkova to comfortably claim the win and Garcia to pinch second place.
Wood was the other beneficiary of the Dutchwoman’s error as she swooped in to claim the podium's final spot ahead of Visser who limped home to finish fourth place.
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Despite the difficult ending, Visser remains comfortably on top of the standings, 27 points ahead of Sidorkova, while a further 38 points adrift in third is Wood. Only four points separates Wood, Powell and Garcia in the top five.
The W Series Esports League next round takes place at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Brazil next week.