PBMUK rider James Ellison overcame some minor problems during practice and qualifying to score more World Championship points at today's Hertz British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Aboard the Claiming Rules Team (CRT) specification Aprilia ART and cheered on by a partisan 65,000 crowd, the 31-year-old from Kendal could only manage 17th fastest time in qualifying meaning a row seven start and his cause wasn't helped when he suffered a crash in MotoGP morning warm up.
However, the former World Endurance Champion and double European Superstock Champion bounced back as he fought his way through the field over the 20 lap race to claim an impressive 14th place to add to the points he scored at the French Grand Prix at Le Mans last month for the Penrith-based Paul Bird Motorsport team.
James Ellison: "Overall, it's a good, positive result and I'm pleased with scoring more points although the problems we encountered in qualifying didn't help us. It's vitally important to get some fast laps in on new tyres and I have to figure that out myself because the further up the grid we are, the better chance we have in the race. We made a big step forward with the electronics this weekend which, in turn, helped the chatter problem so thanks to the team and to Aprilia for working hard on that as it showed in the race. The support this weekend has been amazing and thanks to all the fans and the PBMUK sponsors for that."
Paul Bird, Team Owner: "It was a good solid weekend for James and the PBMUK team and I'm very pleased with how our home Grand Prix went. We just need to find a little more speed in the first part of the race and then we'll be regularly challenging the leading CRT riders. To see the support we had this weekend blew us away and just goes to show how popular and important a British team is to fans at the British Grand Prix."
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