Nicolas Hamilton with mixed emotions despite positive end to penultimate meeting

AMD Tuning’s Nicolas Hamilton bounced back from a difficult start to his Silverstone weekend to finish on the cusp of the top 20 in the penultimate meeting of 2015.

Beaching his Audi A3 in the Becketts gravel during opening practice, Hamilton went on to qualify 25th with his lap time being quicker than that of a year ago when Robb Holland drove the car. Tipped into a spin early in race one, the BTCC’s first-ever disabled driver to compete in the series soon found himself in further strife as he spun under braking heading into Brooklands, later learning a broken alternator cable was to be the reason.

Battling into the top 20 in race two before contact from Simon Belcher sent him out of proceeding’s on the final lap after coming to grief with the armco barrier, the Monster Energy-backed racer rounded off his day at the Northamptonshire circuit with P22.

“The end results leave me with mixed emotions but I think we’ve made more progress from Rockingham which we have to be happy with,” noted Hamilton. “I was on the back foot a bit after the incident in FP1 as it cost me valuable track time, but I qualified where we expected to be and felt good for race day.

“In race one I struggled with the balance of the car and that ultimately led to the spin, and unfortunately there was a problem with the alternator and the car wouldn’t fire up to rejoin. In race two however, I think I was probably having my strongest race in the BTCC so far as I was racing hard in the pack, getting stuck in and making up places. It’s just a shame that someone else decided to hit me in the rear at Luffield, which caused the puncture that put me off into the wall.

“I got a decent start in race three but lost out a bit behind the Safety Car. However, I caught up with the pack and managed to make up some places and then spent time following Andy Priaulx, who didn’t really pull away from me. Overall, there are a lot of positives to take away from the weekend and I can head to Brands Hatch full of confidence.”

Hamilton will round out his maiden foray in the BTCC next weekend at Brands Hatch where his five-round programme will come to an end.