Ricky Collard ecstatic with front row start at Silverstone

Ricky Collard declared himself ecstatic after securing his maiden front row start for the latest rounds of the BTCC season at Silverstone.

Having been given an additional outing in the West Surrey Racing BMW 125i M Sport as father Rob continues to recover from concussion, the BMW Junior Driver impressed in qualifying to post the second quickest time; lapping just 0.018s slower than pole man Sam Tordoff.

It leaves the youngster well placed to challenge for victory on race day and he said his focus was firmly on challenging for the top step of the podium.

“I’m ecstatic,” he said. “To be honest, I feel I drove like an idiot in that session and went wide a few times, but my actual lap was good and credit to the team for giving me such a good car. We have worked seriously hard off the track and this is the end result of it all.

“It’s been hard to get my head round the car because I’m used to driving cars with downforce all the time and dad told me not to worry if the car was sliding around in qualifying – and it was sliding! What I feel should work from driving DTM and GT cars doesn’t work in the BTCC car which is such a unique beast and whilst that meant my lap didn’t feel amazing, it was actually good.

“It’ll be crucial to get a good start and try and jump Tordoff as I think the pace in the car is good enough to get away, but with so many cars so close on the times, it’s going to be crazy out there.”