Rob Collard: “We pulled it out of the bag at the end”

West Surrey Racing’s Rob Collard salvaged 12th on the grid for the first Brands Hatch race, with the title contender recovering from an early gearbox problem which had left him languishing at the tail of the field.

Collard was one of the first drivers to brave the greasy track on slicks after the early red flag, and gradually built enough tyre temperature to make significant improvements in his laptime.

Collard’s BMW 125i will line up immediately behind Team Dynamics’ Matt Neal and team-mate Sam Tordoff, with Andrew Jordan just behind.

Assessing his qualifying session, Collard told TouringCarTimes: “I think we pulled it out of the bag at the end. It was looking very grim sitting in the pits with the rain on my screen knowing that I was last. It was not a nice feeling and not a good way to start my last qualifier of the year.

“We had to just stay on the set of tyres we were on and at the end the pressures increased too much, so we started going slower when the track was at its best.

“But I’m very pleased for the team that we salvaged it and generally it’s not a bad qualifying position under my previous form.”

Collard sits fourth in the championship ahead of the first race, 17 points adrift of Tordoff.