Powell: W Series title hopes now slim after airborne Misano crash

Powell - who started the Misano weekend third in the championship having finished on the podium at both Hockenheim and Zolder - made contact with polesitter Fabienne Wohlwend on the entry to the first corner in Saturday's race and was sent airborne, triggering a safety-car period.

The clash was investigated by the stewards during the race, but they ultimately deemed neither driver to be at fault and it was cleared as a racing incident.

Powell's DNF pushes her down to fourth place in the championship behind Marta Garcia, while Jamie Chadwick extended her lead to a margin of 13 points over Beitske Visser after winning for a second time.

Misano marked the halfway point of the W Series calendar, with just three races remaining at Norisring, Assen and Brands Hatch for Powell to recover.

"I got a really good start and a launch off the line, Fabienne maybe not so much," said Powell.

"Beitske was just in front of me so going down the inside was an option that was closed.

"I chose to go round the outside and Fabienne was getting squeezed ever so slightly by Beitske - understandable - and my front wheel made contact with her rear wheel and that sent me instantly up in the air.

"I was a passenger from then on and I didn't go over luckily, but it's a big dent to the championship.

"I think realistically if you look at the front two and how they're going and how consistent they are, it's going to be very tough to win the championship and [even] to finish second is going to be very difficult.

"I'm only a few points behind Marta and I've dropped to fourth but third is still open.

"I just have to try and keep moving forward and it's not ideal what's happened here but I've just got to move on and it'll be a totally different circuit at Norisring."

Wohlwend suffered no damage in the accident and went on to take third, mounting a consistent challenge on Visser for second place.

The Liechtenstein driver has previous experience of Misano and won both of her Ferrari Challenge races at the circuit last year, but admitted that she started poorly because she was nervous about lining up on pole for the first time in a single-seater.

"I didn't have the best start and I was very nervous because it was my first ever single-seater pole position," said Wohlwend.

"She [Powell] came on the outside and I could barely see her and we were quite early on the brakes and she hit my front tyre and then went all the way to the gravel.

"I was really worried that my front tyre or front wing would be damaged but I just kept going flat out hoping that was car was OK."