‘Tough’ was how Trade Price Cars Racing’s Jake Hill described qualifying for Round 25 of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship at ‘the home of British Motorsport’ Silverstone.

Two very promising sessions in free practice, culminating in an excellent P8 in FP2, a time of 58.763, gave a good indication of where the 25 year-old from Kent may be in qualifying.

As qualifying started, the AmD Tuning.com team worked hard on giving Hill the best possible balance in the Audi S3, and early indications were that the car would be in the mix for a strong position.

However as at Knockhill, another short and tricky circuit, the times in qualifying were incredibly close, and the balance wasn’t quite where it was in the morning sessions.

Despite several committed laps, Hill’s best lap of 57.971 resulted in P22, leaving him and the team frustrated, but aware that the weather forecast for Sunday indicating heavy rain will change the scenario for everyone.

“We sat down after FP2 and all agreed to make some changes. We just missed on what we could have down – even if we’d done what we had this morning we’d have been P14 – but if we’d gone 1/10th faster than this morning we would have been well in the top ten.

We know from Knockhill and other races that qualifying is important, but not a disaster if it doesn’t quite go to plan. We have to just survive race one and then see what happens after that – especially with the weather likely to be so changeable. I’m not stressed…I’m sure we’ll be ok!’ smiled Hill.