It was a tough night out for Caitlin Wood in the latest WSeries Esports League round, with series leader Beitske Visser putting on a dominant display at the virtual event at Interlagos in Brazil.
It was a near perfect performance from the Dutch driver who ended the night with two wins either side of a runner-up, as well as claiming the fastest lap in all three races and picking up 60 points out of a maximum of 63.
Wood on the other hand, still managed to end the round in the top five on the outright standings, but dropped to fourth behind Marta Garcia after the Spaniard finished ahead in all three races.
In the opening race, Wood started in third place behind polesitter Visser and Garcia as the top two spent the early stages of the race jostling for the lead, allowing Wood to have a sniff at a sneaky pass.
However ahead of the race’s second stint, Visser claimed her lead back and kept it for the remainder of the race, as Wood comfortably finished where she began in third behind Garcia.
After a disappointing opening race where she finished in the bottom five, current series runner-up Irina Sidorkova took advantage of the reverse-grid in the second race, as she took the lead from Naomi Schiff within the first lap and never looked back, getting some vital points back thanks to her easy win.
Starting from the back of the grid, Visser steadily climbed the field throughout the race, picking off each driver one-by-one until she eventually got to second where she stayed and crossed the finish line – eight seconds ahead of Tasmin Pepper.
Rounding out the top five in the evening’s second race were Nerea Marti and Garcia, while Wood made up 11 positions to finish seventh – 10 seconds behind the sixth placed Abbie Eaton.
The final race was far less intense compared to the round’s opening hit out, as the top three started where they finished with Visser leading Garcia and Sidorkova from lights out to the chequered flag.
After a little wheel-to-wheel action in the opening stages between Garcia and Sidorkova, once Garcia got second place back from the Russian, she kept it and managed her pace well over the remaining laps.
The only change in the top five came through the battle between Wood and Pepper as the latter managed to replace Wood during the race and finish fourth, leaving the Aussie to settle for fifth place outright.
Despite being unable to recreate her performances of last round, Wood still managed to finish the round with a nice haul of points ahead of next week’s round at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.