Jake Hill aims for forward progress

Jake Hill says he is hoping to make forward progress across the three BTCC races at Thruxton after securing fifth on the grid in qualifying.

Hill was the quickest of the BMW drivers in the session but had to settle for a place on the third row of the grid as Ash Sutton grabbed a second successive pole – and fourth in a row for the Motorbase team.

The WSR driver put his best lap in just before a red flag to replace a tyre stack at the chicane and was unable to improve after the restart due to fluid dropped by the Vauxhall of Aron Taylor-Smith.

“I think that was as good as we could expect,” he said. “I said I wanted to get into the top five and that is what we did, it’s just a bit frustrating to see the Ford on pole again for the fourth round in a row.

“The track evolved a lot from practice into qualifying and we had a bit of understeer through Church which meant I had to back off to avoid losing a lap to track limits, which is a ridiculous rule.

“It’s good to be the quickest of the BMW drivers and we just have to focus on getting the most points possible from the races tomorrow and trying to finish ahead of where we start.”

Hill will share the third row with team-mate Colin Turkington, who also felt he had got the maximum from his car in the session.

“I think that’s the best we could have done today so I’m quite satisfied with sixth,” he said. “Getting a lap-time here isn’t about being brave, it’s about being smooth and disciplined. The BMW improved through each run but the track really didn’t get any quicker.

“We’re set up quite well for tomorrow, we always race better than we qualify here and hopefully the warm weather will play to our favour.”