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Mikey Doble ‘as surprised as anyone’ with top four

Mikey Doble said he was as surprised as anyone else after securing his best BTCC qualifying result by far at Thruxton.

On a day where the Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra showed strong pace throughout, Doble emerged at the star of qualifying as he secured fourth place on the grid for the opening race, putting himself alongside Thruxton record-breaker Josh Cook.

Doble’s quickest lap came during his final run and was almost a second quicker than his second-fastest time, with the rookie insisting that it had been a case of putting his trust in the car to deliver the time required.

“I think I’m as surprised as anyone else!” he said. “I told the team that the car was mega, and it was down to me to trust it. Only having really one lap on the tyres made it difficult as a small mistake and you were done, so I had to focus on being as accurate as possible.

“When I came out of turn four and looked at the delta, I was three-tenths of a second up and then I nailed the section where I had been slower and suddenly I was eight-tenths up. It was then a case of not making a mistake, and to be up at the front with the big names is unbelievable.

“It’s exciting, but this is all experience for me. It’s a big step in the right direction from where I’ve been but if you want to be the best, you have to learn from the best and that’s the position I’m in.”