Collard laments 'fraught' start to the year

Team BMW's Rob Collard felt a podium finish was within his grasp during the final British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Donington Park after recovering from another difficult qualifying.

The BMW 125i M Sport driver endured a disastrous qualifying session for the second round in a row after only setting a time good enough for 25th position on the grid in the wet conditions.

Having also struggled in the wet at Brands Hatch, his performance in similar conditions at Donington Park has left Collard searching for answers.

"This year so far I’ve really struggled in the wet. I really struggled at Brands Hatch in the wet. Every test day we’ve had, I’ve been really good in the dry but struggled in the wet," Collard told Crash.net.

"It’s something I really need to look at and address because I’ve always been quick in the wet and I don’t know what’s gone wrong. It’s a bit like my one lap qualifying pace.

"I didn’t have any confidence in the car during qualifying and that really showed. But then looking at all the other RWD cars, apart from Colin [Turkington], we were all at the back."

Nevertheless, Collard resurrected his weekend after orchestrating a fightback from 25th to an 11th place finish during the opening BTCC race.

Although his progress took a knock on the harder prime tyre during the following race in 13th, the BMW driver still managed to cap off his weekend with fourth in the reverse grid race.

"We sort of found our pace again today [Sunday] in the dry. We had the pace in the dry in race three at Brands Hatch but only had three laps before I got knocked off," Collard continued.

"Today [Sunday] was good. I’m disappointed we didn’t quite get a podium in race three. I thought we were going to get there. I think race two really hurt us. The hard tyre was really difficult to drive on.

"I think everybody went backwards on that tyre. I’m glad we had it in race two. I thought we were going to finish 10th ahead of the reverse grid but we actually finished 13th outside of the reverse grid."

Collard’s fourth place finish in race three turned out to be Team BMW’s best result over the Donington Park weekend, as the WSR squad continue their ‘fraught’ start to the 2018 BTCC season.

“WSR and BMW have had a fraught start to the season. Probably the worst start to the championship we’ve ever experienced with a few reliability issues and getting knocked off,” said the BMW driver.

“It’s just how it’s going really. None of us are seeming to get a break at the moment.”