DTM Trophy season ends with no reward for their efforts from the Team Speed Monkeys AMR crew

A pole position setting time ahead of race one for Riegel was something to cheer in its infancy but a three-place grid drop from race officials for apparent track limit violations at the previous round at the Red Bull Ring saw the #63 car start from the second row.

With Hancke on something of a recovery drive following his qualifying run, an errant BMW put paid to his race one ambitions after contact at the haircut left the #99 with broken front suspension and yet another DNF to his tally for the season.

Race one wouldn’t go too much better for Riegel either as his P4 start ended being a P7 finish by the end.

Qualifying for Sunday’s finale was also something of a sombre affair as the best that Riegel could do was P7 whilst Hancke again struggled back in P13 before an early Safety car for yet more race ending contact for (this time) a Mercedes quietened things down again.

At the restart however, Hanke’s season went from bad to worse as Hancke was pushed wide over the start line before spinning out into turn one and retirement into the first corner – so nearly claiming his teammate in the process.

Just sixteen minutes remained at that second restart as Riegel hoped to progress from his then P4 position, but it was clear that the terminal velocity of the AMR was not the same of the other marques around him before getting pinged by Race Control for driving standards (bitter irony there) having just bumped an Audi off track going into a braking zone in the stadium complex.

Despite coming back out the last of the runners, Riegel did manage to cross the line in P14 but was elevated to P12 post-race to mark the end of his first GT4 season, finishing eight in the championship with Hancke in tenth.

Photo credits – Team Speed Monkeys