Rob Collard has admitted that he was questioning his own ability before securing his best results of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship to date at Croft.

Having secured a deal to return to the series full-time with Motorbase Performance, Collard headed to Croft having endured a difficult season so far – yielding just a single points finish in his BMW 320si at Rockingham from the opening twelve races of the year.

With the team having struggled during the previous two rounds at Donington Park and Thruxton, Collard and team-mate Steven Kane travelled North looking for an upturn in fortunes at a circuit where the BMW ran well in the hands of Team RAC last season.

After qualifying in 14th place, Collard made the most of his experience to lie in fifth place when the opening race was red-flagged for a second time and he then climbed up into a podium position after three laps of race two after battling ahead of defending champion Fabrizio Giovanardi and with Gordon Shedden having gone off into the tyre wall at Tower.

Collard looked well set for a podium finish before he got out of shape exiting the chicane on lap 14 and lost position to a charging Mat Jackson, eventually taking the flag in fourth place. Taking the start of race three from the second row, Collard blasted into the lead off the line and having been passed by Giovanardi for the lead on lap two he held second place until lap eight when contact from Adam Jones at Sunny In put him off line and he was collected by Mike Jordan while trying to get on track, damaging the front of his car and putting Collard into retirement.

“We started the weekend in positive form and qualifying wasn't bad, although we hoped to be higher up,” he told Crash.net. “Race one was fantastic and I think experience counted there to keep the car on the island. It was hard to keep the car on track as the car was aquaplaning all over the place.

“In race two, I made a good start and was able to defend from Giovanardi and it was good. I was quicker than Matt Neal and in hindsight I wish I'd had a go at him as I was quite happy to sit there and have a podium – that was how we read the race. We didn't expect Jackson to catch us so quickly, which was a shame as we didn't get our podium but we had to get a good finish from the race and that was in my mind.

“The reverse grid was good to us in race three and I led for the first few laps but realised I didn't have the pace under braking with the extra weight. Giovanardi got past me quite easily and then Adam Jones hit me going into Sunny so hard that it spun me round and Mike Jordan collected me, damaging the car so badly that I couldn't continue.

“It's frustrating for me as a driver and for the team as we had a great weekend and something like that happens. I feel the officials have to start clamping down on some on the contact out there as it took two of the top guys out – myself and Mike. We were both in good positions and it is unfortunate that Adam made such a crazy move.”

Collard admitted that his solid performances in the first and second races had been a good boost to the confidence after his difficult start the year, with the former race winner admitting that he had started to question his own ability after opening four meetings of the year.

“The results were really good,” he said. “I've been questioning myself a little about whether or not I have lost some of my race craft, and a lot of people were saying I can't drive rear-wheel drive. We proved that isn't the case and it is good to go into the six week break with two good finishes under our belt.

“I'm looking forward to some of the circuits coming up after the summer break. Snetterton is good for the BMW and Knockhill is one of my favourite tracks; I've had good results there in the past. I think the second half of the year will be good for us as the team has got a handle of the car now and while we have struggled in recent races, we have found more speed now.”