The Honda Yuasa Racing team are focused on finishing the 2014 British Touring Car Championship campaign on a high after they endured a trying weekend at Silverstone.
Drivers Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal went into the weekend knowing that the visit to the home of British motorsport was likely to be their most painful of the season.
The weekend started badly as news of a suspended fine and revocation of the team’s TOCA licence came out, after a meeting of the Championship Stewards found comments made following the Rockingham weekend to have ‘brought the Championship into disrepute’.
And matters struggled to improve for the manufacturer during qualifying, as the pair qualified in 17th and 18th, but while Shedden was able to advance to 14th in race one, a drive-through penalty for Neal on the last lap relegated him to 21st place.
Any faint hopes that Shedden and the team had retained of winning the title were extinguished by race two, where Turkington’s second place and an 11th for the Scotsman left him more than the 89 points that would keep him in contention behind the eBay Motors driver.
The 2012 champion, who now looks poised to finish third despite a year of consistent points scoring, was nevertheless able to take some comfort from his car’s performance relative to last year, praising the efforts of the team throughout the weekend.
“It was a tough weekend, as expected,” said Shedden. “Our pace in the races was definitely better, but this isn’t an easy track for overtaking, especially when the field is as closely-matched as it is this year.
“As ever, the handling of the Civic Tourer was spot-on all weekend and we tried our absolute hardest. We grafted away and fought from the second the red lights went out to the chequered flag.”
Neal, meanwhile, is now joint-seventh in the drivers’ championship alongside Sam Tordoff, and with three races remaining can finish no higher than sixth – which will be his lowest finishing position since 2001, where he competed in just one event.
The three-time champion was understandably glad to see the back of another disappointing weekend, but remained optimistic of a return to competitiveness at Brands Hatch.
“We’ve always tended to endure a rough weekend at Silverstone,” said Neal. “My car felt mint all day – really, really quick – and our pace in race one was very good, but gaining ground at Silverstone is never easy, no matter how quick you are.
“I’m already looking forward to getting stuck in at Brands Hatch, which should suit us far better – hopefully we can utilise the fantastic Honda chassis there and come away with a much stronger clutch of results.”