Andrew Watson experiences a ‘solid first weekend’ at Donington Park

Toyota’s Andrew Watson said it had been ‘a solid weekend’ for him in the British Touring Car Championship’s opening weekend at Donington Park, as he picked up a trio of points-paying results.

On his first weekend with the Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota squad, Watson managed to progress beyond his group in a rain-affected opening part of qualifying, and then got through to the final ‘Quick Six’ session after posting the sixth-best time in Q2.

That was ultimately where the Northern Irishman would find himself starting for the opening race, after again being sixth fastest in the final part of qualifying.

In a rain-affected race one, however, the 29-year-old found himself going backwards, struggling with set-up issues, to finish the race in tenth.

Struggling with braking performance in race two, Watson slipped back two further places to take the chequered flag in 12^th.

Stemming his backwards slide, Watson finished race three where he started in 12^th, although he had been as high as ninth before getting involved in some close battles at Redgate on the second lap.

Despite the obvious frustration at going backwards rather than forwards, Watson was optimistic about how his first weekend in the Speedworks squad went.

“That was a solid first weekend, I would say,” said Watson. “The car wasn’t perfect in free practice, but the sessions went pretty much according to plan and we made consistent steps in the right direction.

“The weather was a major variable all weekend, and getting heat into the tyres in the cool conditions was a big challenge for everybody, but qualifying was great.

“I really enjoyed the new format – I thought it was more exciting, and I hope the fans did too. I did a lot of work over the winter mentally and on my breathing, which really helped in that session.

“The team did a great job and worked perfectly in sync – everybody was really methodical and professional, which obviously made my life easier – and we had the right tyres on at the right time.

“The Toyota was very nimble, and I felt like we maximised what we had in the ‘Quick Six’ shootout, which put us firmly in the mix.

“My focus for race day was on moving forward again, but with the way the weather turned out, Sunday was all about survival and staying calm and collected, especially with it being only the first weekend of the season.

“We didn’t quite get the balance of the car right, but at the end of the day, we scored points in all three races and we know there’s a lot more to come.

“There’s plenty of potential in the Corolla and I’m really looking forward to unleashing it.”

Team Principal Christian Dick praised Watson’s single-lap pace and his composure in achieving a trio of race finishes on Sunday.

“Andrew did a stellar job in qualifying to progress to the ‘Quick Six’, which really underlined both his potential and that of the car,” added Dick.

“While he had to deal with some braking and set-up issues on Sunday, he nonetheless kept his cool to bring home three solid points-scoring finishes.”