After such a positive Donington test, Jota Sport drivers Sam Hancock and Phil Quaife were left slightly disappointed after qualifying on the second and third rows at best of the grid for Sunday’s races at Donington, the fifth and sixth rounds of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB.

Half a second back from pole-placed Tim Bridgeman, Hancock took fifth on the grid for race one, behind series leader Michael Caine, Tim Harvey and Charles Bateman.

Twenty-two year-old Quaife qualified seventh behind his team-mate and Callum Macleod for the first race.

A more favourable grid position was gained by the duo’s second fastest qualifying times, with Hancock the best of the rest in fourth behind Team Parker Racing trio Bridgman, Caine and Bateman. Quaife is two positions adrift in sixth behind Red Line Racing’s Harvey.

Hancock explains what happened: “I was in position two only one or two tenths of a second from pole position and remained there for about 20 minutes of the total 30 minutes of qualifying. But once I had got out of the car in position two behind Caine, every lap another car passed and I dropped down the order away from Bridgman’s pole time. One of our mistakes was not waiting for the track to rubber-in like others did, which is why others set some better times. But we’re positive about the race; we just need to keep an eye on tyre wear, that’s really important at Donington.”

Quaife adds: “It was definitely a frustrating qualifying for us - the result is really just not good enough and particularly disappointing after an excellent test session this week. But I’m very confident for the races after the test; it sounds as if it might rain tomorrow which could be interesting as we did some wet testing and we have a good set-up planned, so either way, we're ready!"