Jake Hill ecstatic with front row start

Jake Hill insisted he was delighted to head the championship contenders after securing second on the grid for the opening BTCC race of the weekend at Silverstone.

The WSR driver was able to overcome the fact that race engineer Craig Porley wasn’t present at the circuit after being hospitalised with pneumonia to maintain his impressive qualifying form.

Hill would end up less than a tenth of a second behind poleman Rory Butcher to secure a place on the front row for the sixth time in nine meetings – maintaining his position as the best qualifier on the grid this season.

“I’m ecstatic,” he said. “We extracted the absolute maximum from the BMW given how little hybrid we had here compared to most of the cars around us.

“Huge thanks to WSR and ROKiT MB Motorsport for a fantastic BMW. To do this with Craig not here because he’s not well is quite an achievement, but I have to give him huge credit for making sure the car was set-up perfectly before we even came here, and to Dick and Rob for looking after me here plus Craig for his input on the phone.

“The aim for tomorrow is to score big points and I’m sure we can do that. It’s exactly what we need to close right in on the championship lead before the final round at Brands Hatch.”