Kent racer Esmee Hawkey had an eventful trip to the challenging Norisring in Germany last weekend as she scored her first W Series points.
Starting from a frustrating 15th on the grid, she swept past four cars around turn one on the opening lap and kept up the pace throughout, crossing the line in ninth position.

It capped a successful week for Esmee after she claimed her maiden Pro-Am victory in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Oulton Park just one week prior.

The performance was a good comeback for the 21-year old after she lost track time in free practice, having to pit with a brake issue before an incident involving Alice Powell in the first period, the latter causing her to miss all of the second session.

Building her confidence back up in qualifying, she was disappointed to only finish 15th quickest but showed she had the ability to press on in the race as she made a strong start off the line.

Climbing those four places on lap one, she was locked in a race-long duel with Vicky Piria, getting past when the Italian was given a ten-second penalty for a jump start and making two further places when other cars had technical problems.

Esmee is back on track with the W Series over the weekend of July 19-21 as she travels to Assen in the Netherlands for round five of the season, though there will also be a non-championship reverse grid race on Sunday as well. As ever, live coverage of Saturday’s race will be broadcast on Channel 4 and All 4 online in the United Kingdom.

Speaking after the weekend, Hawkey said: “It was my first race on a street circuit and driving around next to concrete walls instead of having some runoff and grass was a totally different experience, so it was quite a challenge.

“Free practice one was about getting to know the circuit, but it didn’t go well for me. I went out and did a few laps on used tyres, but I had a problem under braking where the car kept darting to the left. I came into the pits and the team worked on it, but I lost around 15 minutes when they made changes.

“I got back out on track and was getting quicker but coming in to turn one I couldn’t slow the car down. I tried braking, but the car didn’t react how I thought it would. I had Alice Powell around three car lengths in front of me, so I went for a gap on the inside because there were walls on the right or I’d go straight into the back of her and we came together.

“We looked into it and I think it was being a dusty street circuit. It’s one of those things that happens and something for me to learn from, but it meant I missed all of the second session.

“I put myself on the back foot having not had many laps in FP1 and taking myself out of FP2, so it was straight into qualifying on Saturday. A crash like that definitely knocks your confidence, especially under braking when you can’t stop the car how you want it to, so qualifying didn’t go too well.

“I made a good start to the race however and took four places around the outside of turn one. I made my way up to ninth during the race, so I scored some points which I’m really happy about. It’s a turnaround from where I’ve just missed out by finishing just outside the top ten in some of the races so far this season.”