Martyn Bell declared himself happy with qualifying at Oulton Park after being left to fly the flag alone for the Arkas Racing with Sunshine.co.uk team during the latest rounds of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship.

Bell qualified in 21st place at the wheel of his Astra Sport Hatch despite setting sector times comparable to former works driver Gavin Smith during his time driving the car for VX Racing.

Unfortunately, Bell lost time at Knickerbrook on his quickest lap, but he said he was confident of a solid run on race day.

“We looked at the data and I was 0.8secs up on the lap-times Gavin Smith did in the car when it was with the works team but I lost time at Knickerbrook,” he said. “Then after the session was red flagged, I went out hoping to put in a good lap but got caught up as Fabrizio Giovanardi and Jason Plato went for laps and I couldn't chase the time.

“However, I'm very confident that we have a good race pace.”

The second Astra however will remain in the garage on race day after Bell's team-mate Erkut Kizilirmak was forced to withdraw from the weekend.

“Arkas Automotive are in the process of moving their headquarters back in Turkey, so Erkut was unable to make it due to his business commitments,” Arkas technical director Brian Ashwood explained. “We knew it might happen and although Erkut tried to make sure it was all sorted in the gap between Snetterton and this weekend, it just couldn't be completed in time.”