Tom Chilton was jovial as always after British Touring Car Championship Free Practice at Oulton Park, having claimed P2 despite an ‘awful’ session.
Chilton’s Free Practice had limited running, with the veteran only setting representative laps with 10 minutes of the session remaining.
An early setup change saw the Team VERTU man spend most of his session in the pits, before an issue forced him in for repairs.
Despite that, he immediately placed inside the fastest 10 with his first, before jumping to P2 towards the chequered flag.
“It was an awful session, but I managed P2,” he told BTCC media.
“I only did three laps in total, but I ended up P2.
“We started off wet, and we obviously did an out and in lap on a few sets of tyres just for the housekeeping.”
Saturday at Oulton Park started wet, with rain causing chaos in the opening support session. But, the clouds relented and pre-practice running would dry the line.
“I was like, it’s going to be dry soon, let’s put all the dry settings back on it.
“And we even changed brakes and everything, ready to do a dry session. Went out there, warmed up a set of tyres, and then I think the discs are cracked.
“So they then had to change the brakes again.”
Chilton’s Free Practice is not the first time drivers have struggled with the new BTCC-mandated brakes.
Stopping ability has been criticised, with Chilton adding: “I’m braking definitely a car and a half length early to all the big hard stops, which is quite weird.
“I’m used to braking later. But the pad, you hit the brake, nothing happens.”
Tom Chilton (jokingly) says that he is BTCC’s Michael Schumacher after Oulton Park practice
While limited running may destroy the Saturday of many drivers, someone as experienced as Chilton will know he has to shrug it off and put his best in.
His P2 result made sure of that, setting him up for another strong Saturday after topping the Snetterton timing charts in qualifying.
“I went out there, and in my second flying lap whacked it P2.
“That’s the experience; I’m Michael Schumacher!
“I remember Michael in every FP0 was always quicker than Rosberg, P1 in the Mercedes, and he had years out of it.
“Experience is key. But you do need to have the car under you, and the car is good.
“But I need to now look through the data and see where I can improve.”
Discussion about this post