Motor racing-Formula E rookie test pits women alongside the men in Berlin
(Reuters) -Formula E would love to have a female driver back on the starting grid but, on times alone, the all-electric series' rookie test in Berlin on Monday suggested that it remained some way off.
Four women took part in the test after weekend races at Tempelhof but the highest in the overall classification was Abbi Pulling, last year's F1 Academy champion and current GB3 competitor, in 17th with the Nissan team.
Fellow-Briton Ella Lloyd, who competes in British F4 and F1 Academy, was 18th for McLaren and Jamie Chadwick, three-times winner of the now-defunct W Series and a Williams F1 development driver now racing in European Le Mans, was 19th for Jaguar.
Bianca Bustamante of the Philippines, a GB3 racer with 1.7 million followers on Instagram, was 22nd and last for the Cupra Kiro team although the entire grid was separated by just 1.550 seconds.
Italian Gabriele Mini was overall fastest for Nissan in a field that included former F1 racer Daniil Kvyat, Charles Leclerc's younger brother Arthur and leading Formula Two drivers.
Formula E chief executive Jeff Dodds told Reuters ahead of the test that he was optimistic a woman would make it back onto the grid before too long.
"We went from no women testing really, to 20 women in the official women's test last year and off the back of that we've actually got four women testing in the actual rookie test now in Berlin," he said.
"So that's a big jump, we've made progress.
"In the end the teams will make a choice based on what their objectives are in terms of building a fan base, promoting themselves as a team, bringing on sponsors and partners and being as successful as they can be.
"It may not be next year but I would love over the next couple of years to see women back racing on that grid."
Three women have raced in the series, which is now in its 11th season -- Britain's Katherine Legge twice in 2014, Switzerland's Simona de Silvestro started 12 times in 2015-16 and Michela Cerruti four times in 2014-15.
De Silvestro is the only one to have scored points.
Unlike Formula E, Formula One has not had a woman start a race since Lella Lombardi in 1976.
Pulling, who was top in last year's all-female test, told Reuters recently she saw Formula E as "a really viable career path in the future".
"For now I'm going to keep going up the ladder as far as possible and see where things take me," she said. "I don't have the finances to plan massively in advance so it all depends on how I perform this year."
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Christian Radnedge)
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