Tom Chilton has said he was happy with the progress during the 2017 British Touring Car Championship season with the Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra, although he admitted the results were slightly worse than expected on his return to the BTCC after six years away.

Chilton’s best result came during the opening weekend of the season at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit with third in the final race, while he pulled off the best qualifying performance of the year at the season finale on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit two weeks’ ago.

“There’s been massive progress, from how the team works to the evolution of the car,” said Chilton to TouringCarTimes.

“We’ve all massively evolved as a team. I think it was quite a tough time from Oulton Park onwards after such a high at the start of the year, but we’ve then got better and better, and have come good at the end of the year.

“I haven’t had quite as many podiums as I thought I was going to. I was maybe mentally thinking I won my last race in the BTCC at Brands Hatch GP in 2011, and I was going to come here and win the first one, but because of these cars, the championship has become a lot more competitive, and has some of the best racing in the world now.”

The 32-year-old says he hopes to be back in the BTCC next year, potentially continuing with Power Maxed Racing should the conditions be right.

“I’d love to come back with Power Maxed, especially as we’ve had a good strong end to the year. It’s been down to us working with the set-up on the cars and making it better, and if we had the chance to do a couple of weeks testing we’d be right on it.

“All-in-all it’s been a great year, and I’m looking forward to being back for the next one if it happens.”