Chilton bags podium spot at Snetterton

TOM CHILTON admitted the hard tyres’ handling was “horrible” at Snetterton although the Reigate racer still managed a podium finish at the third meet of the British Touring Car Championship season.

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After a wet opening practice where times counted for little, Chilton secured ninth on the grid and elected to run the soft compound tyre in the opening race where he finished seventh.

In the second race, Chilton made the most of the soft tyre to charge through to the podium. He fought his way ahead of Daniel Lloyd before the finish of the race to come third. In the weekend finale and on the hard tyre, Chilton came 18th having been forced wide early on - leaving him nursing dirty tyres for much of the race.

“Although we missed out on Q3, we had a good run in qualifying on Saturday and the first two races were great,” Chilton said. “We were able to make the most of the pace in the car to race forwards and I really enjoyed picking up some strong points for the championship.

“Race three was a different matter on the hard tyre, and whilst it's fine at Thruxton as it's what it is designed for, it was horrible here.

Being forced wide early on didn't help as the tyres got covered in dirt and just didn’t clean, but by the finish, the only guys ahead were those I'd battled for the podium in race two. That showed we did what we could.”

Justina Williams, Team VERTU owner, said: “We've had another strong weekend on track and to come away from Snetterton with three more trophies and an extended lead in the Teams' Championship is very satisfying. We'll look to maintain our strong form when we head to Thruxton for the next meeting.”