Despite taking a podium finish in race one, Team Aon still believe that the car has a lot more to give following the opening round of the 2011 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

The team debuted the new ‘Global’ Touring Car Ford Focus this weekend and they believe that the data the team received from all of the sessions will stand them in good stead for the upcoming races after showing good promise and potential.

Chilton, who finished the first race on the third step of the podium, said, “We know a lot more about the car now than we did at the start of the weekend, and we finished all three races. We had a great first race to finish in third. We are still developing this car and now we’ve got a much better idea now of where we stand and we know the areas we need to improve on before the next rounds at Donington.”

Andy Neate found it much more difficult at Brands Hatch and struggled with the handling and set-up with the car. Qualifying inside the top-ten showed that he had the one-lap pace but more development is needed until he can challenge at the sharp end of the grid.

Neate, who’s best finish was an 11th place in race one was annoyed with the days outcome and said, “We’ve had an issue with the rear of the car, which the boys managed to get to the bottom of by the end of race two. I was hoping to make the most of race three, I had a good start, but then I got spun by Alex MacDowall on lap one, which put me at the back. Then later I had contact with John George that knocked my steering out.

Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong, so it’s a disappointing start to the season because we came here with quite a lot of potential.”

Photo Credit: Jakob Ebrey

James Mappin is the editor-in-chief covering the British Touring Car Championship. You can contact him at james@btcccrazy.co.uk, on twitter @BTCCCrazy or on his personal twitter account @jamesmappin.