Team Shredded Wheat leaves Brands Hatch disappointed as it failed to show the potential of the new Ford Focus RS in its British Touring Car Championship debut.

Tom Chilton and James Cole left the opening round of the 2018 championship with just 18 points between them after bad luck hit the team in the second and third races of the weekend.

“So many should’ve, would’ve, could’ve scenarios for us this weekend,” said Chilton, who lies 17th in the overall standings. “We should have had a podium at least this weekend but somehow it didn’t play out our way.”

The team started with the weekend with a strong performance in qualifying. Chilton picked up seventh while Cole started a little further back in 14th. Both drivers managed to make progress in race one, finishing fifth and ninth respectively.

But changing conditions in race two and shunts for both drivers in race three meant neither picked up any more points.

“We had a great start to the weekend with a strong qualifying and a solid race one result for both Tom and James,” explained team manager Oly Collins.

“Unfortunately the safety car in race two enabled the circuit to dry just that little bit too early for us to get the wets to last in the drying conditions, and then race three was just out of our hands.”

Despite the disappointing end to the weekend, Team Shredded Wheat heads to Donington Park with one positive. The new Ford Focus showed its quality early in the weekend, and the team hopes that will lead to strong results at the next round.

“The car is in a very good place,” said Cole. “It’s been very quick all weekend, especially considering how close the field is.

“Race one was a great result. Unfortunately, race two was out of our hands weather wise and didn’t go to plan and then we got taken out of race three.

“Not what we expected this weekend which is a shame but moving forwards to Donington the car is really strong and we should be on for some decent results there.”

“I’ve been very happy with the performance of the RS this weekend and we’ve been consistently fast,” added Chilton.

“We just need the luck in qualifying to put us at the right end of the grid and we’ll be challenging for podiums and wins. It’s just hard to come through from the back.”