Andrew Watson impresses to lead rookie charge

Andrew Watson produced an impressive performance on his first BTCC qualifying appearance after putting his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra inside the top ten at Donington Park.

Watson joins the grid this season for his first campaign in touring car racing, and his first year in front-wheel drive – having spent recent years in GT competition across the globe.

Having gone twelfth fastest in the opening practice session of the weekend, Watson then took 14th in FP2 despite improving his lap time, and headed into qualifying optimistic about his chances of trying to push for a place in the top ten shootout.

Saving his best lap for the end of Q1, Watson put his Vauxhall Astra into eighth place on the timesheet and then set the ninth-best time in the ten-minute long Q2 session to leave him in a solid position for race day.

“We’d been around the top ten in practice but I knew things would ramp up when it came to qualifying,” he said. “We needed a few things to click and luckily they did as the guys and girls at Power Maxed put the car in the window and it came together.

“It’s nice to get into the top ten even if we didn’t get that bit quite right, but hopefully it will make things a little bit easier for tomorrow as that is then the hard work really starts.”

Watson added that he was hopeful that making it into Q2 would aid his chances of three solid results on race day.

“The feedback from friends on the grid is that the further up you are, the more predictable and respectful it is,” he said. “At the end of the day, I’m here to learn this weekend and I’m not too sure what to expect, so I want to just enjoy things and have fun.”