Audi Sport Team WRT were forced to withdraw rookie Pietro Fittipaldi from DTM’s Saturday race at Brands Hatch as a result of accident damage sustained in qualifying.
The 23 year old was involved in a sizeable accident at Paddock Hill Bend, forcing the first qualifying session to be red-flagged for over 20 minutes.
Intermittent rain had left the 3.908km ‘GP’ layout damp in places, and a number of drivers risked running on the slick tyres to make the most of the drying line.
Just five minutes into the session, and Fittipaldi fell victim to the unforgiving barrier at the first corner. The drivers have been forced to deal with a vicious tailwind down the Brabham Straight, making he already difficult first corner even more of a challenge.
Fittipaldi appeared to lose the rear end of his Audi RS5 Turbo on turn-in, and was a passenger as the car spun onto the gravel.
Due to the wet track, the Brazilian did not decelerate before skipping across the gravel trap backwards, and colliding heavily with the barrier.
The impact destroyed much of the rear assembly of the car, and forced Fittipaldi to spin and suffer damage to left and front areas of the car.
The Brazilian, who has scored points in four of his ten appearances for both Team WRT and Team Rosberg, has been forced to sit out the rest of the day’s action as the damage deemed irreparable before this afternoon’s race.
The WRT Team are hoping to repair the car overnight and have Fittipaldi out on track for qualifying tomorrow morning.