Downton face a race against time to build Nathaniel Powers a new car ahead of tomorrow's qualifying session for the final race of the season after a heavy accident in the dying minutes of the session wrecked his chassis and left him towards the bottom of the time sheets. Powers is eight points behind team mate Klaas van Snelheid as they battle this weekend for the 2017 Formula Virtual Championship but ended practice just 21st fastest after failing to get a lap in on the Intermediate tyres when he crashed on the pit straight and brought out the red flags with four minutes to go.
Torrential rain from the start of the session had eased and allowed for drivers to switch to Intermediates from the Full Wets in the last ten minutes with a number of drivers improving their times. As Powers came down the straight/finish straight however he lost control and aquaplaned into the outside wall before careering back across the track and hitting the pit wall too. The red flags were flown with the chequered flag and Adrien Simon ended up with the fastest time from Powers' team mate van Snelheid. Powers climbed form the car unaided but the team later revealed the damage to be so extensive that a new chassis would be required for the 2013 World Champion. Meanwhile, Judson Sikes, Oleksandr Zozulya and Puccio Giodano were among the drivers who failed to get their final laps in on Intermediate tyres due to the premature end to the session. At the opposite end Tumo Kinnumen was third fastest in what is his final race for Westwood, with Allar Kangur fourth ahead of Kinnumen's team mate Finn Schnyder. Conditions tomorrow are expected to be similar to add further intrigue to the final qualifying session of 2017. See below for full practice classification:
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