Adam Jones bounced back from an engine problem during the second free practice session to secure third on the grid for the second round of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship at Rockingham.
The Team Aircool looked to be heading for a repeat of his disappointment at the Northamptonshire circuit twelve months ago when his car ground to a halt during the session with an engine issue as was the case last year when his SEAT Toledo was then forced out of the remainder of the weekend.
This time around however, the GR Asia squad was able to replace the engine on his new SEAT Leon between second free practice and the start of qualifying and Jones rewarded the team for its work by storming to third on the grid putting him ahead of both works Leons of Darren Turner and
Jason Plato.
I'm over the moon, he said. I'd have been happy to get into the top ten as we haven't had a lot of running with the car and had an engine problem in the second session so it is very satisfying to get the result.
In the second session, the warning lights came on so I turned the engine off and hopefully we have managed to save it, although we changed the engine as a precaution before qualifying. I think it was the same lap of the second session and I was following Plato again as I was last year so it was a case of dιjΰ vu I just couldn't believe it as it was exactly the same. But at least we had a spare engine and could get the job done in qualifying.
Jones added that he wasn't going to predict how race day will pan after his best qualifying performance to date, but said a podium was his aim from the three races.
It is hard to predict, he said. I'd love to be on the podium but straight line speed isnt out strong point with this car this is when we'd like the Toledo back again! We'll struggle compared to the
BMW and Leon TDi with that, but anything can happen. The BMWs will get a good start as always, so we need to get round the first lap and then see where we stand after that.
