BMW Pirtek Racing’s Andrew Jordan felt he suffered a “missed opportunity” to fight back in the title battle due to reliability issues in the British Touring Car Championship races at Silverstone.
The 2013 champion was encouraged by his BMW 125i M Sport’s pace at the 1.6-mile national layout after qualifying fifth and progressing to third in the opening laps of the first contest.
Jordan then slowed on the exit of Luffield on lap 12 as he lost power, and later suffered a powersteering failure while fighting back in race two.
He told TouringCars.Net he was very annoyed after a day of what might have been, with reliability problems scuppering his chances of getting back into the title fight.
“It should have been a podium for race one and then who knows for race two and three but reliability has just let us down massively today,” said Jordan.
“It’s taken us out of the championship hunt when we should have been clawing points back. We’ve been on fantastic form all weekend, and in the last few events.
“We just need to get on top of the reliability because it’s pointless having a quick car if it’s not a reliable one.
“We’ll work at it but I’m very annoyed because in race three on the hard tyre we’ve come from 22nd to ninth – which you shouldn’t be able to do – and that just shows what we should have been able to do all day.”
Jordan admitted he was surprised by the pace of the West Surrey Racing BMW at Silverstone, but added that this only amplified his disappointment not to achieve better results.
“I came here thinking we might struggle a little bit on pace and actually we’ve been strong on pace,” he said.
“But that’s the way it goes – it’s just frustrating because it’s been a real missed opportunity through nothing I’ve done or any of the guys on the car have done. The car has been quick all weekend but we just haven’t got to the end of the races.
“In race two we had the powersteering fail, so I did two thirds of the race with no powersteering, and you just can’t challenge when you’ve got no powersteering in these cars around here.”
“We’ll crack on to Brands but it’s very frustrating.”
As Jordan is now out of championship contention – some 83 points adrift of standings leader Colin Turkington – his approach for the finale on the Brands Hatch GP circuit is to push for silverware.
“Podiums and wins are all I’m going there focused on,” Jordan said. “I just want to forget about this weekend for a bit, go home to my family and forget about racing for a bit because I’m fed up of it today!
“But that’s the way it goes.”