MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square optimistic ahead of Silverstone race day

MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square enjoyed a positive start to their weekend at the home of British Motorsport, culminating in a sixth successive top-ten qualifying performance for Jake Hill and a P17 starting position for Sam Osborne.‍

Arriving at Silverstone adorning an amended livery incorporating the logos of CCS Media thanks to the team’s partnership with HP UK and Intel UK, the team were keen to build on their recent impressive showings. Greeted with cold conditions for the first time this season, the #4 and #24 FK2 Honda Civic’s set about running through their planned programmes across the day’s two practice sessions.

Getting to grips with the conditions, Jake and Sam closed out the first practice session of the day in P14 and P15 respectively. Making some setup changes to both cars for the following outing, progress was still hard to come by with the majority of the field separated by less than a second. With Sam finishing the second session in P12 and Jake in P14, attention was turned to the search for any possible gains available ahead of the all-important qualifying session.

With the threat of rain increasing as qualifying rolled around, plans were not helped by an early red flag which brought a temporary pause to the proceedings. As the first set of push laps came and went, both Jake and Sam found progress hard to come by so set about one final roll of the dice as the session neared its conclusion.

With the stakes getting higher with every passing lap, both Jake and Sam pulled fantastic laps out of the bag. A 57.719 catapulted Jake up the order, maintaining his record of top-ten qualifying results in every race weekend so far in the 2020 season, as the lay in P10 as the chequered flag fell. Meanwhile, Sam’s best lap time of 57.923 initially lifted the #4 driver into P12 before this became P17 as he was pipped by a handful of drivers right at the tail end of the session.

The end result of the day sees both drivers firmly in the mix as we head into race day tomorrow at Silverstone and looking to make it another day to remember for the MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square team.

Elsewhere, Official Development Driver, Esmee Hawkey, continued her excellent winning form as she claimed Pro-Am pole position on her way to her eighth Pro-Am victory of the season in Porsche Carrera Cup GB. With another race tomorrow, the Kent-based driver is looking to extend her class lead in the standings even further and put herself in the mix in the Pro category.‍

Shaun Hollamby, Team Principal, MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square:‍

“It’s been another good day at the office. The team have had to work hard to make progress throughout the day and at times it’s been very difficult but we’ve put ourselves in a strong position heading into race day. As with any race day, we’ve got to try and get off to a positive start and put ourselves in the mix to pick up some good points later in the day.”‍

Mark Blundell, Sporting Director, MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square:‍

“Jake and Sam have put in the work today and got their rewards. It was always going to have to be a progressive type of day, trying to step forward in every session and I’m really pleased we have done just that. It’s always very tight around here and we can now focus on maximising our performance tomorrow. It was also great to see Esmee continuing her impressive form and I know she wants even more from tomorrow!”‍

Jake Hill, #24 MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square:
“It’s been a decent day here at Silverstone. The Honda Civic FK2 is more suited to slower, change-of-direction circuits so it’s a battle for us to be up there and in the mix around here. We’ve kept up the record in terms of top-qualifying finishes which I am really pleased about and we’ve got a great opportunity to have a really positive day tomorrow.”‍

Sam Osborne, #4 MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square:‍

“As always with every racing driver, I wanted a little more out of qualifying but we are there or thereabouts. In FP2, we looked really strong but it was just a case of being pipped by a few drivers right at the death in qualifying. Our success this weekend will be about coming through cleanly in race one and making our moves from there.”‍

Esmee Hawkey, Official Development Driver, MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square:‍

“Although I was a little bit disappointed in qualifying, I was really pleased with my race pace today. It is another Pro-Am class victory in the bag but the challenge is to make some progress against the Pro drivers tomorrow as we’ve got the race pace to be right in and amongst it.”