Jasmine Shaw achieves career-best qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps
- MARCO ALBERTINI
- 1 minute ago
- 2 min read
At her first visit to the famed Spa-Francorchamps circuit, Jasmine Shaw showed impressive pace by qualifying a career-best fourth and showing steady and resilient pace in the races, in which she faced adversity but was able to take a top 10 in the most chaotic round of the season thus far.
In the third round of the Caterham Seven 270R Championship at Spa-Francorchamps, Jasmine Shaw enjoyed her career-best qualifying and proved her worth in the season's most chaotic round, at one of the world's most renowned racing venues.
Coming off strong runs at Cadwell Park and Croft, the Cotswolds-born racer headed into Friday's qualifying session on high spirits. In her first-ever visit to the Belgian venue, Shaw qualified an impressive fourth out of 50 cars, after strategically placing herself at the right place and at the right time before her final push lap.
Saturday only saw race one being held, in torrential rain. As the rain progressively got worse, Shaw lost control of her car on the formation lap and damaged her car, but was able to still take the start and jump to third by the halfway mark of the opening lap.
However, her hopes were dashed when she spun at Pouhon while trying to avoid one of her teammates, dropping her down the order. From there, it became an uphill battle for the 20-year-old, as her right-front fender, which was damaged on the formation lap, began rubbing the tyre and thus making her lose speed. Despite the setback, Shaw fought valiantly to minimize the damage, as she crossed the line in 16th in a race ended behind the safety car.
The following day, race two was held in sunny conditions. Despite slipping to 18th at the start, Shaw clawed her way back to 16th on lap three, before jumping to 14th in the closing stages. As the leading pack began to battle, Shaw and cars around her closed up to it, which led to her overtaking four cars on the final lap, but was collected in a crash shortly after crossing the line in 10th.
In the gap between race two and three, the DPR Motorsport mechanics were able to repair Shaw's car in time for the final race of the weekend, in which she lined up 10th on the grid. After getting up to ninth in the early stages, Shaw proved her worth by remaining with the leading pack as they approached the final stages of the race.
However, with eight minutes left, three cars directly ahead of her spun and found themselves out of the race, as Shaw barely avoided them all, but lost a couple of places as a result. The race ultimately ended behind the safety car when it proved too long to clear the stricken cars behind the wall, as Shaw ended the weekend with an 11th-place finish.
