Rydell confident for Thruxton

The reigning champion could do no better than a solitary seventh at Donington, his Volvo S40 off the pace all weekend.

Silverstone saw him doing much better; he took third in the Sprint race, and was challenging for the lead in the Feature when a minor collision broke a steering arm.

AUTOSPORT asked Rydell to preview the forthcoming two races at Thruxton, the fastest circuit the BTCC visits.

"Thruxton is a good circuit - there's a lot of room for overtaking. It's essential to have a car that handles well.

'If you've got a handling problem, Thruxton shows it up more than other circuits, because the tyres will go off a lot.

'You can lose a lot of time in the middle of the race if you don't have a balanced car, but at least that means you see more overtaking.

'I think it's a nice track - a lot of fast corners. It's not one of the most interesting circuits for spectators, because so much of the track is a long way from the viewing areas.

'It's a bit different to many of the other circuits; Donington, Silverstone and Brands have better facilities, for example, but it's still nice to go there.

'We did pretty well in the recent test there - I was second fastest to Leslie, so we should be on the pace.

'When it comes to setting the car up, all the fast corners round the back of the circuit are most important - how you go through those corners dictate your straight-line speed on the back straight leading back to the chicane at the end of the lap.

'I'm pretty hopeful for how we'll do there; here at Silverstone the Nissans are just too strong, because there's a lot of tight corners, but I still managed third. Hopefully, we can go even better at Thruxton.'