Up first for qualifying in Round 3 of More Female Racers Season 6 Powered by Mercedes-AMG was the AM class and it was Penelope Dobbins who dominated. Her pole time of 1:41.9 was a whopping 1.477 seconds ahead of the next fastest qualifier in AM, putting fourth overall to mix with the Pro class. Louise would take second ahead of Aphelion.

Whilst the driver on top in this championship so far, Aenore Rose, once again looked dominant at the top of the table in qualifying after taking pole position in Pro, Alexa Gates was only two-tenths back and Sara Dove a further half a second away.

Race 1 pole-sitters streak away

Even before the lights turned green, Cosmo Marsh and Ruby Acosta had technical issues on the formation lap after qualifying, which meant pit lane starts for them and a tough evening on the cards. They managed to recover to ninth and eleventh overall whilst the chaos ensued with five major casualties in the gravel from the mid-pack after the first two turns of lap one – a shuffled pack for the remainder of the race was the result. Amongst others, the incident included Lisa Louise from second in the AM class

At the front, however, nothing changed. Rose was challenged off the line by Gates accompanied by some door banging as the top two were in a class of their own. They’d streak well ahead of the mele behind and Rose eventually finished some ten seconds up the road. April Carlsvard claimed the final podium position in Pro after a ten-second penalty was applied to Anna Foster for an earlier collision that dropped her to fifth.

After keeping it clean at the start of the race, Dobbins actually moved to third overall at the end of Race 1; she was some seventeen seconds behind the lead pair in the end but had the measure of the entire rest of the field. 

Aphelion and Lee emerged as the other podium protagonists in AM class at the flag after starting third and last respectively, but their positions were reversed due to a penalty for Aphelion after the race. With no time set from Lee in qualifying, it was probably the drive of the race to make it onto the podium and finish second.

Race 2 gets messy

The second 30-minute race of the evening had its starting order based on the finishing positions of Race 1 within the drivers’ respective classes. Rose would lead them away from pole, followed by Gates and Carlsvard in Pro with Dobbins now all the way back in fourteenth overall, but still on pole in the AM class ahead of Natalie Lee and Aphelion.

Rose and Gates again door banged off the line – much more forcefully this time – which sent Gates into the gravel at turn two where she dropped back to fourth. Dobbins again had a clean getaway in the AM class, naturally due to her speed difference, and never looked back. Aphelion held second early on with Natalie Lee being the lap one casualty of this race – she dropped to the rear of the field but recovered to sixth in class.

With fast and frantic battles up and down the field for Race 2, things started to get a little messy and a little too close for comfort with drivers, so close in fact that no less than nine of the twenty-three drivers picked up penalties before the end of the race, completely shuffling the finishing order at the flag.

Pope picked up the pieces due to penalties ahead and good pace, allowing her to take second in the Pro class for Race 2. Pope finished behind Aenore Rose, whilst Gates managed to hold on to third by two-tenths after a drive-through on the final lap. 

Louise made up for her Race 1 misfortune by taking third in the AM class with Aphelion on the podium again behind Dobbins.

Round 3 wrapped up

So, Rose continues in perfect form with another two wins in Season 6 of the More Female Racers series whilst Gates stays best of the rest – they’re both sitting pretty at the top of the Pro class standings. Moving up to third though is Denise Pope, who picked up her first podium of the season this week at Imola. 

In AM class, Dobbins leads but is likely to move up to the Pro class for the rest of the championship with a perfect score since joining. Behind, four drivers are separated by just four points behind in a mighty battle in the AM class that includes Aphelion, Laferla and Louise.

Up next is Round 4 on May 15th where you can watch all the action unfold live on the SimGrid YouTube Channel.