Despite being third quickest in testing, misfortune prevented David from achieving a possible podium finish.
Friday's practice went very well for the Ewell racer, with David finishing the day 3rd fastest having only using a half set of new tyres whereas everyone else around him used a full new set, which would have given a big advantage. With David only being half a tenth off 2nd and two and half tenths of 1st, David was feeling confident of a strong performance and a possible podium.
In qualifying one, David was running in 6th when the session was red flagged due to a car stopped on the circuit. After the restart, David was on a flying lap, when the rear of the car slid slightly resulting in him just dropping a wheel over the kerb at the fast Westfield Bend, which then automatically took his car into a spin and then into the barrier, ripping the car in half and ultimately ending his day of qualifying.
David was uninjured from the massive shunt with only minor bruising, but was airlifted to hospital as a precaution, but was later released during the day.
With his team hard at work they managed to repair the car in time for the first race on the Sunday and it was much to David's and team's displeasure that David's first race was cut short after a CRS racing car cut across the track trying to defend their position and broke off David's front wing and gave him a puncture along with some other bodywork damage. After a pitstop to fix the damage, David returned to the track in last place and a few laps down on the race leader.
Race two was going to be a tough race for David, as he had to start in last position after not competing in the second qualifying session after his massive shunt. Considering the nature of Brands Hatch GP overtaking is not a common thing to see, especially in Formula Renault. However David once again showed he was a true racer and attracted much of the television coverage as he picked off the competition lap by lap with some great and unexpected overtaking moves at corners such as Paddock, Druids, Surtees, Hawthorn and Clearways. David was up to 12th and the gap to 11th looked too large to close but David kept on pushing and by the last lap he was right on the tail of 11th, but a small mistake increased the gap slightly forcing David to settle for 12th.
David commented after the race; "It's a shame I didn't get to show my true paces in qualy and the races after being so quick in Friday testing, only using half a set of tyres, whilst everyone around me used a full set."
"After the first red flag in qualifying, either my tyres started to go or they had cooled down because I started to get very slight oversteer, which I did not have before and that was enough to drop my wheel over the kerb by the smallest amount, which was enough to spin the car. It was a very big crash but the car did its job and absorbed all the impact and I was able to walk away with minor bruising. The team did a fantastic job repairing the car in time for the first race, as I did not think I would be racing today considering the state of the car yesterday."
"Race one was very disappointing because I couldn't have done anything about the contact, as someone just cut across me. However I really enjoyed race two, coming through the field with some good overtaking was great and I was really pushing to the limit to try and get 11th before the chequered flag, but it was not meant to be. It has been disappointing not to be up there on the podium this weekend as we had the pace to, but looking at it positively, I have learnt a lot."
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