Jake Hill pushes Josh Cook all the way with two second places in British Touring Car Championship at Thruxton

Jake Hill played his part in two close finishes as the British Touring Car Championship season resumed at Thruxton at the weekend.

The Platt's Heath driver qualified on the front row and was less than a second behind winner Josh Cook (Honda) in the first and second of three races, before contact with Tom Ingram in race three - won by BMW's Adam Morgan - saw the MB Motorsport BMW 330e M Sport runner finish 21st.

“Overall we had a really positive weekend at Thruxton,” Hill said. “It’s a track that doesn’t typically suit us rear-wheel drive runners but the BMWs were strong.

"The front row in qualifying followed by two more podiums is a great haul of points and I thoroughly enjoyed the battles with Josh throughout the day.

"The final race didn’t fall our way and that was unfortunate but we still scored well and can head to Oulton Park feeling confident.”

Hill was on the front row of the grid for the third weekend in succession and a sublime launch off the start line allowed him to surge alongside and briefly ahead of polesitter Cook heading into the first chicane before the Honda reclaimed the position.

Settling into the race, Hill continued to build heat into his tyres and set about overturning the gap the front-wheel drive Honda had developed. Before long he was harassing Cook for the lead, maintaining a three-tenths gap, while vying for a way through in a thrilling cat and mouse chase - eventually settling for second place by 0.900sec.

A solid launch in race two, coupled with a poor getaway for Cook, meant Hill led off the start line and into the opening lap. But with the benefit of higher front tyre temperatures, Cook scythed back past into Club chicane - with the pair now running line astern for the second race in a row