Jake Hill left frustrated by Donington DNFs

Jake Hill admitted that he was frustrated by a “heart-breaking” start to his BTCC campaign at Donington Park after engine issues left the MB Motorsport driver without a point from the opening three races of the season.

Hill went into the first meeting of the campaign looking to build on a solid pre-season testing programme in his Honda Civic Type R and looked set to challenge towards the sharp end on race day when he dipped under the previous qualifying lap record en-route to seventh on the grid.

It would prove to be the highlight of the weekend however, with an engine issue then forcing him to retire from seventh in the opening race and a further problem with the replacement unit then putting him out of race two when the #24 Civic had battle up into the points from the back of the grid.

A gear linkage issue and then a puncture resulted in two pit stops in race three and meant Hill wasn’t classified in the results, despite setting the second fastest lap of the race – leaving him to play catch up in the standings after the opening round.

“That certainly wasn’t the start to the season we were hoping for, but there wasn’t much we could do about it,” he said “It’s heart-breaking when things happen that are outside your control, but I can’t fault the MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square team as they have pulled out all the stops today to make sure I was out for all three races.

“It’s been a challenge for us as a team but these things make you stronger, and we just need to put Donington Park behind us and focus on what is to come. We showed in race three that the car is quick, and I have no doubt that we’ll come back strong.”

Whilst team-mate Sam Osborne would run into issues of his own on race day as he too failed to finish the second and third races, the former EXCELR8 racer was at least able to enjoy his best result by far in the series in the opening race after a fine drive that saw him climb from twelfth on the grid to seventh – marking his maiden top ten finish.

“It’s been a mega weekend for me, even though two retirements on paper might not look so good,” he said. “I had my best ever qualifying result on Saturday and to then race through to seventh in the first race was fantastic; a top ten finish first time out in the car is more than I could have hoped for.

“In both race one and race three, we showed strong speed on track and were able to match the front-running pack. That is something that gives me a huge amount of confidence for the season ahead.”