Martin Donnelly aiming for “three solid finishes” in Infiniti debut

Martin Donnelly was pleased with his first session as a British Touring Car driver, taking the Infiniti Q50 of Support our Paras Racing to 24th at the end of Free Practice 1.

The former Formula 1 driver has replaced former Infiniti driver Richard Hawken at the new manufacturer squad, and immediately began putting respectable lap times in, ending the session 24th, ahead of Keiran Gallagher, Stewart Lines, Andy Wilmot and team-mate Derek Palmer, who suffered a power steering failure and could not complete a flying lap.

“It was quite good actually,” Donnelly told TouringCarTimes. “It wasn’t as bad as everybody led on, I just made sure I knew where I was and used the headlights, there were no issues. My game plan was to go out and just gradually build up, get to know the car, get the feel of the car and try to get some information back to the team once we’d bedded in the tyres.

“There was a bit of precipitation towards the end of the session and I know the circuit from old that when it gets even a slight bit of moisture in the air it’s like a skid rink. You don’t want to go out and be a hero, just get around and get to know the car which I did for the last four laps.”

Donnelly’s fastest lap came on his 10th of 16 around the Thruxton circuit, although the session was more about getting himself used to his new surroundings, stating that Free Practice 2 is where he can start to think about lap times and moving up the standings before just looking for three finishes come race day.

“The worst thing I can do is go out and bin it straight from the off, that’s not the kind of PR the team’s after,” continued Donnelly. “It’s like a graph starting at zero, as long as you’re gradually moving up, instead of up and down which is the worst thing. Just building blocks, I told myself go out there, don’t bin it, feel the car, get used to the controls, find out what you need and then for the second session we can ramp it up a bit.

“I’m hoping for some solid results, I’ll try and do as best I can in qualifying to try and uphold the Paras, but the main task will be to see three chequered flags in three races on Sunday.”