Jake Hill ‘drove the wheels off’ for P3

Jake Hill said he felt third on the grid was ‘pole in my eyes’ after leading the rear-wheel drive challenge in BTCC qualifying at Donington Park.

Hill, who scored pole at the same circuit last year on his debut with West Surrey Racing, would be unable to challenge the two NAPA Racing Fords of Dan Rowbottom and Ash Sutton as they locked out the front row of the grid.

Hill’s fastest lap would be a tenth of a second off pole but a tenth of a second quicker than team-mate Colin Turkington, who had earlier led the way in the second free practice session of the weekend.

Going into race day, Hill will hope to make the most of the strength of the BMW in race trim to take the fight to the cars ahead and felt confident of his chances.

“In our eyes, I’d say that is pole as I’ve driven the wheels off my BMW,” he said. “It’s nice to be the best BMW around here again and I’m really pleased with the car.

“It’s been handling fantastically and now we need to dig our heels in tomorrow and see if we can get ahead of the two Fords and make the most of our tyre life.

“We are incredibly strong in race trim and I enjoy driving the car over a long run as it hardly changes but the question is how the Focus will perform. Some people think they will be strong and others think they will struggle, so we need to wait and see.

“I finished last year really strongly so I want to start where I left off. I’m feeling confident and now we need to keep pushing and build on our qualifying result.”