Jake Hill: ‘I’ve done the best job I could’ in wet Thruxton qualifying

Jake Hill says he ‘can’t grumble’ after qualifying eighth for the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Thruxton, with the Laser Tools Racing driver saying he did ‘the best job’ he could in the wet conditions.

Hill had started the day strong with the third quickest time in a mostly dry opening practice session, before going tenth quickest in the second session of the day.

However, qualifying presented an entirely different challenge as heavy rain arrived, creating challenging conditions for the entire field.

Third fastest in his Q1 group, Hill missed out on progressing beyond Q2 as he slipped to eighth in the closing seconds of the session, having used the best of his tyres. Toyota’s James Dorlin denied him from progressing to Q3 before Team Vertu’s Tom Chilton also got ahead at the end of the session.

“It was proper wet – it doesn’t get any wetter than that,” said Hill to TouringCars.Net. “It was on a par with Silverstone race three last year, and unfortunately it just gets to a point where it’s too wet for us.

“The BMW and I are very good in the rain normally – we’ve won almost every race we started at the front in the rain last year [races two at Snetterton and Silverstone], and we were fantastic at Snetterton in FP1 when it was wet.

“Typically, we go very well when it’s raining. But it was just too wet; we were aquaplaning non-stop.

“The difference is, because we’re driven by the rear axle, we have to get out of the throttle and chase the throttle everywhere, whereas the front-wheel drive boys just keep their foot in and drive through the puddle. It’s a lot easier for them to tackle those conditions.

“To make the most of our performance and to minimise aquaplaning the tyre pressures have to be bumped up a lot more than you would normally run in the rain, just to clear the water.

“It helps for those first two or three laps but then the tyres get over-pressured and you can’t go faster again, which is what I found in Q2.

“We’d posted a time and were happy, but we couldn’t improve from there, even though the track was getting faster, because I’d used the best of the tyres by then.

“It is what it is – I think I’ve done the best job I could. I’m the best of the BMWs with by far the least amount of boost, so I can’t grumble.”

Whilst Hill is looking forward to race day, he feels his best chance of a strong result will be if he can be in the mix for a good reverse-grid position in race three.

“I’m looking forward to the dry tomorrow to see where we are. The car felt good in FP1 and FP2, even though it was a bit mixed [weather], but the car seemed pretty sensible and I’m pretty happy with it.

“Are we going to be challenging for a win? Who knows, but it’s doubtful. I think we’re on for a reverse grid in race three or something like that.

“We’re going to have a day of being inside the top ten and trying to make the most of it and hopefully we can try and turn it around in race three.

“I don’t honestly know, we could have a much stronger car over a race distance. Typically, we’re very good at looking after our tyres, but at the same time those front-wheel drive guys have done a fantastic job at looking after their tyres as well recently.

“Who knows. I think we’re slightly better in the dry than we were in those terrible wet conditions at the end there.”