Carlisle racer Alex MacDowall’s season continued to frustrate during round four of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS Endurance Cup at the Hockenheimring.

The Cumbrian suffered two punctures which limited him to 11th place in the Silver Cup.

MacDowall, who had been contesting the new Gold Cup class over the course of the first three race meetings with Barwell Motorsport, returned to the Silver Cup for the visit to Germany as part of a new line-up featuring fellow Silver-graded drivers Sam De Haan and Patrick Kujala.

MacDowall, Kujala and Frederik Schandorff had combined to win the Silver Cup title with Barwell in 2020 but their return this year ended in disappointment.

In the No.77 Lamborghini Huracan GT3, punctures on two occasions after contact from other cars ended any hopes, with Kujala taking the flag at the end of the three hours in 29th overall.

MacDowall said: “It’s been a bit of a rubbish weekend again.

"It was difficult from the start - we came in on the back foot with the team not having been to Hockenheim before.

"A lot of the others have raced there in different championships like the GT Masters.

"We were a bit slow to get going in practice, plus the Lambos generally had a bit of a lack of pace which made things tough.

“In the race we were just unlucky again, two punctures from contact is the sort of thing that can happen to anybody but it meant we couldn’t move forward – we ended up going backwards.

"We didn’t achieve what we should have this weekend so it’s a case of more disappointment really as well as frustration with a lack of speed.”

MacDowall will now look ahead to the fifth and final round of the GTWCE Endurance Cup, with the last three-hour race of the 2022 season on Sunday, October 2 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

MacDowall will again race in the Silver Cup partnered by De Haan and another new team-mate in British driver Charlie Fagg.

“It’s been a very bitty season for us with so many team-mate changes, it hasn’t helped us try and put together a consistent challenge at all, but hopefully we can end the season with a bit of a more positive result in Barcelona”, said MacDowall.

“It’ll be difficult again, but we’ll do the best we can.”