Mark Jones said he was happy with the progress made by Team Forward ahead of its debut in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, despite seeing his qualifying session end on a low note at Brands Hatch.

One of four drivers making their debut in the BTCC this weekend, Jones made a steady start to the weekend in the Lexus IS200 and headed into qualifying looking to try and get close to Adam Jones in the sister car run by Xero Competition but suffered a spin into the gravel at Paddock Hill Bend that brought out the red flags and ended his session.

“Things have gone well over the day and we made progress every time we went out,” he said. “We are getting closer to Adam in the sister car which has to be our aim for the weekend.

“We were progressing well again in qualifying but it ended the wrong way round in the gravel! Up until that point we were going forward but it's a shame it had to end that way.”

However Jones remains optimistic of making a move forward when racing gets underway.

“I'm reasonably confident although I'd rather have finished qualifying as we were progressing,” he said. “I'm pleased with the car and it is pretty stable so I'm looking forward to it.”