Adam Carroll - Brands Hatch DTM Rd4 race report

Ulsterman Adam Carroll endured a miserable weekend when the Ulsterman finished 15th in his “home” German Touring Car Masters race at Brands Hatch on Sunday (10 June).

Having steered his 2005-specification Audi A4DTM to the second quickest time in tests around the 1.198-mile “Indy” circuit on Friday, his optimism of claiming the best grid and race results of his short DTM career quickly evaporated.

The 24-year-old former GP2 race from Portadown winner could only manage the 16 th fastest time in Saturday’s qualifying for the 20-car grid before claiming 15 th in today’s 82-lap race to complete a disappointing weekend.

“I made a good start and moved through the field but Paul Di Resta and Mike Rockenfeller went off and I ended up in the gravel too,” confirmed Carroll. “I pushed as hard as I could throughout the race but my tyres didn’t last long and I was struggling to stay on track.

“I kept racing hard and managed to keep some of the Mercedes at bay. My pit stops went well but it was a real shame I got the drive through penalty for being just 3mph over the speed limit.

“Having been so competitive on Friday, qualifying was a massive disappointment and obviously the race result wasn’t the one I was hoping to achieve. I can only look towards the next race and aim to improve on my result with each outing.”

Carroll made an excellent start in his 2005-specification Futurecom TME team Audi A4DTM in the 98-mile race but was forced wide and into the gravel at Druids Hairpin on the opening lap after a multi-car collision which dropped him from 12 th to 18 th.

During the first phase of compulsory pit-stops Carroll ran fourth before pitting and dropping to 11 th on lap 35. Having worked his way back up to seventh, Adam pitted for the second and last time on lap 44. However, officials decreed Carroll had exceeded the pit road speed limit and had to serve a drive through penalty.

Former double world champion Mika Häkkinen (Mercedes) started the one-hour race, the fourth in this year’s 10-round DTM series and the only one to be staged outside mainland Europe, from pole-position. Häkkinen claimed fourth place in the race won by Mercedes team-mate Bernd Schneider (D) who beat Martin Tomczyk (Audi) to the chequered flag by a mere 0.543secs. Last year’s Brands DTM race winner Mattias Ekström (Audi) finished a close third.

Tomczyk heads for the fifth round of the series at the Norisring on 24 June with a two-point lead over Ekström.