Jones praises team.

Adam Jones has praised his GR Asia-run Team Aircool outfit on the back of his podium finish during the second round of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship at Rockingham.

It looked like Jones was going to suffer a repeat of the bad luck he suffered twelve months ago when he hit engine trouble in he second free practice session at the Northamptonshire circuit but quick work from the team to change the engine in the Leon meant he was able to hit the track for qualifying and secured a place on the second row of the grid.

In the opening race, Jones took a solid fourth place finish after losing out on third late on to Matt Neal and then finished eighth in race two - putting him on pole for race three.

Having initially planned to start the race on slick tyres after rain started to fall, Jones benefitted when the start was aborted and switched to wet tyres before a stunning performance in the rain saw him finish third behind Neal and Tom Chilton.

"Race day was a mixed bag for us really but overall it was a good change in fortune compared to last year," he said in his latest Crash.net column. "We had a good first race, not so good second race and then came good again in race three. The balls were drawn in our favour to start from pole position and then the heavens opened to change everything again. From then on, it was into the unknown as you don't know who is capable of doing what and you don't how fast people will be.

"The conditions were very similar to Donington Park last year; maybe not quite as bad but there was a lot of water running across the circuit. Before the start of race three was aborted, we lined up on the grid on slicks because we thought it was just going to be a shower - we didn't necessarily think it was going to be as bad as it was. Then the heavens opened completely and they allowed everyone to change onto wet tyres for safety more than anything. I think the organisers might have felt it was just going to be a shower, but then they saw it was getting worse and you could tell it was going to be a lot more than just a small shower.

"I couldn't see a great deal through the windscreen of the car and I felt that if it had got much worse, I would have had to come into the pits. Visibility was bad just because of the spray coming up from the other cars and corners like turn one were tricky as the banked corner isn't one you find on any other circuit.

"Most corners were filling up on the inside so you'd try to avoid it, but you couldn't always see where the running water was and would hit it before you realised - which is when you have a moment and think you are heading off the track before saving it. Darren Turner went off as a prime example of someone who just hit some water and was unlucky to go off. However, we made it through and to finish on the podium was superb."

Jones now lies inside the top ten overall and second in the Independents' standings, and he admitted that his success so far in the Leon has been down in no small part to the team around him.

"While we can sit and moan about it, we aren't a team with a big budget and haven't done a lot of testing," he said, "so we just have to get on with the job we are there to do. We are a one car team and don't have two cars that we can use to try different things out in practice, so we are finding out feet all the time.

"We have a great bunch of guys who all have the same goal and are capable of doing a good job. That is the good thing about the team and it is very much like a family. It is thanks to the sponsors and the team that things are as good behind the scenes as they are on track.

"If you'd told me prior to Brands Hatch where we would be now, considering how late everything was, then I'd have laughed and the team managers wouldn't have expected to achieve what we have done.

"It is credit to a good team that this has happened so far, and long may it continue."