eBay Motors’ Colin Turkington was the fastest driver in qualifying for the British Touring Car Championship at Knockhill – but it will be MG’s Sam Tordoff who starts from pole position after the BMW driver’s grid penalty from Snetterton is applied.
Turkington rose to the top of the times after 16 minutes of the session – which took place on a drying track – and improved his time twice inside the final few minutes to ensure he took pole by 0.464 seconds from Tordoff. However Turkington will start Sunday’s first race from ninth following his eight place grid penalty from Snetterton for contact with Matt Neal.
“It was a fantastic lap,” said Turkington. “Those ones are really pleasing when you get three purples”.
Behind Tordoff was 2013 poleman Rob Austin, who posted his best lap inside the final few seconds of the half-hour session.
Pirtek Racing’s Andrew Jordan was the top Honda driver in fourth, beating the works’ Civic Tourers of Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal, who were fifth and sixth fastest respectively.
MG’s Jason Plato was seventh fastest, 0.636 seconds off the pace and unable to match his team-mate around the short Scottish circuit.
Airwaves Racing’s Mat Jackson was eighth fastest ahead of eBay Motors duo Rob Collard and Nick Foster in ninth and tenth. However Collard, like Turkington, also has a grid penalty for race one which will see him demoted to the back of the grid for having passed under yellow flags at Snetterton – his third offence of the season.
There were season-best qualifying performances from the drivers just outside the top ten, with United Autosport’s local driver Glynn Geddie and Rob Austin Racing’s Hunter Abbott in 11th and 12th respectively.
Following his engine change after free practice, Tom Ingram was 14th fastest in his Speedworks Toyota, ahead of Alain Menu in 15th who was the top Team BMR driver.
The session was briefly red-flagged after ten minutes when Chris Stockton went off at Leslies, whilst there was also an off for Abbott at Scotsman Corner.
Handy Motorsport’s Simon Belcher suffered a snapped driveshaft in the session and qualified in 29th after only completing six laps.
Top ten times
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 5 | I | Colin TURKINGTON |  |
eBay Motors | BMW 125i M Sport | 27 | 51.705 | |
| 2 | 88 | M | Sam TORDOFF | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 22 | 52.169 | 0.464 |
| 3 | 101 | I | Rob AUSTIN | |
Exocet Racing | Audi A4 | 28 | 52.206 | 0.501 |
| 4 | 1 | I | Andrew JORDAN | |
Pirtek Racing | Honda Civic | 22 | 52.224 | 0.519 |
| 5 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Tourer | 24 | 52.294 | 0.589 |
| 6 | 4 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Tourer | 24 | 52.321 | 0.616 |
| 7 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 22 | 52.341 | 0.636 |
| 8 | 6 | I | Mat JACKSON | |
Airwaves Racing | Ford Focus ST | 26 | 52.373 | 0.668 |
| 9 | 10 | I | Rob COLLARD | |
eBay Motors | BMW 125i M Sport | 21 | 52.397 | 0.692 |
| 10 | 18 | I | Nick FOSTER | |
eBay Motors | BMW 125i M Sport | 27 | 52.466 | 0.761 |
| Note: Colin Turkington will start ninth and Rob Collard 31st after grid penalties are applied for race one. | |||||||||