ALICE Powell endured a weekend to forget in the fourth round of the W Series at the Norisring.

The Chipping Norton driver was forced to retire with eight minutes remaining of the half an hour race at the street circuit in Nuremburg, Germany.

Powell has now dropped to fifth in the standings and trails championship leader Jamie Chadwick by 50 points with two rounds to go.

The 26-year-old's weekend got off to a nightmare start when she was t-boned in the first practice session, hurting her wrist in the collision.

Powell was taken to a local clinic, but an x-ray revealed no fractures.

She then endured more bad luck when gearbox problems in qualifying forced her to start the race from 18th.

Undeterred, Powell produced a superb performance to climb to eighth, but a fuel pump issue forced her to retire.

She expressed her frustration on social media, tweeting: “I actually don't believe this.

“Drove my heart out to get into the top eight and then a fuel pump failure with eight minutes to go. I am absolutely gutted.

“The race was fun, just a shame about the ending.

“It really wasn't my weekend from the get go with things going wrong out of my control.”

Marta Garcia took victory ahead of Beitske Visser and Chadwick.