Right from the start, the Sackville School pupil had been on the pace, posting the second quickest time in qualifying to take two front row spots. The day’s opening 16-lap race around the fabulous Indy circuit sadly ended his run of home victories, the teenager having previously won every race he had contested at the Kent track.

“Qualifying wasn’t too bad,” said Adrian. “We didn’t have the best set-up but I still managed to post the second quickest time. In race one though the car just did not feel right, we did not realise what the actual problem was until the end of the race, when we discovered that the rear brakes were stuck on! Every time I braked, the rear wheel locked up and I had really bad oversteer.”

At the start of race one, Adrian made one of his famous lightening starts to take an immediate lead ahead of pole-sitter Max Chilton but on lap three, Adrian’s problems began to tell, the teenager’s PR Motorsport car sliding wide at Clearways enabling Chilton through to take the lead. The following lap Ryan Borthwick and Jolyon Palmer took advantage when the oversteer worsened, moving ahead and dropping Adrian down to fourth.

A lap later, Palmer spun off to the inside of track, forcing Adrian to take avoiding action, but Palmer over-corrected, into the path of Adrian, leaving him with nowhere to go and he rammed the back of Palmer’s car, breaking Adrian’s front suspension and steering column. The damage allowed team-mate Oliver Webb and Alex MacDowall through but he valiantly fought on to take sixth at the flag.

“The car was bad enough before hitting Jo, but after it was a nightmare. It was slower and slower, as though the brakes were constantly on and I had a real job keeping Webb and MacDowall behind me.”

Race two was less fraught, his super-quick start again giving him the lead with Borthwick slotting in behind. Adrian managed to hold off the chasing pack for five laps before oversteer again came into play and Borthwick seized his chance to make his move, taking the lead at Surtees. With the battling Chilton and Webb behind him, Adrian was able to maintain position and even the take second place at the flag.

“The second race was better, the car was still not perfect, but as least we were able to get some valuable points. Overall I’m happy to come away still with the championship lead and now we head to Cadwell, not the circuit I had my best result on last year that’s for sure. But I’ll be aiming to improve on that, tray and get some more podiums and try and extend my lead.”

Adrian’s next round, at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire take place on Bank Holiday Monday May 29th.

Results of Race 1 – 16 laps

1.	Max Chilton	Tomax Motorsport	14:58.423
2.	Ryan Borthwick	Borthwick Motorsport	14:59.821
3.	Oliver Webb	PR Motorsport	15:02.774
4.	Jolyon Palmer	PalmerSport Junior	15:08.212
5.	Alex MacDowall	Advent Motorsport	15:09.798
6.	Adrian Quaife-Hobbs	PR Motorsport	15:10.954

Fastest lap:

Oliver Webb

55.066sec 80.16mph (129.01 kph)

Results of Race 2 – 16 laps

1.	Ryan Borthwick	Borthwick Motorsport	15:01.574
2.	Adrian Quaife-Hobbs	PR Motorsport	15:03.107
3.	Max Chilton	Tomax Motorsport	15:03.932
4.	Oliver Webb	PR Motorsport	15:04.681
5.	Luciano Bachetta	PalmerSport Junior	15:11.093
6.	Daniel Brown	Driver	15:18.191

Fastest lap:

Oliver Webb

55.336sec 79.77mph (128.38 kph)