“What a day! grinned MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill after his strongest sessions on a Saturday in his BTCC career so far.

Ending both free practice sessions P1, and then scoring his best-ever qualifying, taking P4 in an incredibly close session, local man Hill missing Pole Position by just 0.055 seconds.

After what Hill described as a ‘brutal’ race day at Donington Park last week, where a double engine failure put him out of the opening two races, and a gear linkage issue plus a puncture put paid to race three.

“Definitely the toughest start to a season I’ve ever had. said the BRDC ‘Superstar’ “The guys were amazing though, and did a tremendous job changing engines, so we came to Brands determined to bounce back, and we definitely did that!

In the opening session Hill quickly was up to speed, challenging in the top six, eventually setting a 1m. 31.729 second lap on lap 11 to top the times by just under 1/10th second.

“After last week I was so worried we might struggle, but this has given me a lot of confidence, and this is my favourite circuit so I was loving hurling my MB Motorsport Honda Civic Type-R about!

After a very strong run recreating a race distance, setting quick and consistent times, Hill went out on a new set of Goodyear Eagle slicks and put in a dramatic 1m 31.225 lap to top the times by over half a second.

“That was a wild lap, but a fast one! Had two wheels into the gravel at ‘Sheene’ curve, but still put in some quick sectors.

Heading into qualifying the temperature had climbed to over 30 degrees, and on his first flying lap set a 1m 31.573 to go P2.

Bolting on another set of tyres, Hill set purple sectors (fastest of all) in sectors three and four – the demanding Grand Prix circuit section of the lap – and closed the gap to Butcher to just 0.055 seconds.

Late on some impressive laps by Cammish and Jackson put themselves between Butcher and Hill, meaning that the No.24 machine will start on the second row of the grid for the opening race.

“So close, and what a great job by the crew again all day. Looking at the data my best sectors would have given me a 1m 30.995 lap which would have given me Pole – but I am delighted and hugely grateful to the team and all of my amazing partners.

Image courtesy of Jakob Ebery