Colin Turkington believes he can make progress in Sunday’s British Touring Car Championship races at Snetterton, after qualifying his BMW in just 15th and eighth for races one and three respectively.
Qualifying for race one saw the championship leader struggle to put in a competitive time with 75 kg of success ballast on board, leaving him in just 15th on the grid.
But in the ballast-free qualifying for race three, the Northern Irishman showed the true pace of his BMW 125i M Sport, putting in a time good enough for second on the grid before it was disallowed for exceeding track limits at the exit of Turn 3.
Turkington ultimately put in a new time that would land him eighth on the grid for the double distance race, although he admitted that he was disappointed to miss out on a front row start for the most important race of the season.
“My lap time was a second quicker with the weight out, that’s the positive,” said Turkington to TouringCars.Net. “I did my best with the weight in in Q1 with the 75 kg but the weight does its job – it slows you down by that much!
“I was really impressed by the speed and balance of the car, and I was slightly disappointed to lose my best time [in second qualifying], but there’s nothing I can do about that, so at least I was able to recover to post P8 and I’m still in the game for tomorrow.
“Obviously I’d prefer to be starting in P2, but the circuit infringement was so marginal that we gained nothing by it.”
Whilst Turkington admits that qualifying with the ballast was a challenge, he believes the race will be different, with the focus taken away from outright single lap pace and he expects to be able to make progress.
“I’d hoped to be further up [in Q1] but that’s as much as we have with the weight, unfortunately. You just lose too much time in braking and on the straights, so that’s as much as we have.
“I hope to make progress. It’s difficult to produce one fast lap, particularly as it’s a long lap as you suffer more with the weight, but the race is a different thing, so I would like to make my way into the top ten.”