Gordon Shedden edges out Colin Turkington for Snetterton pole

Team Dynamics’ Gordon Shedden claimed pole position for the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Snetterton, beating Team BMW’s Colin Turkington to the top time in Q2 by 0.163 seconds.

Turkington had earlier set the pace in the first half of qualifying with a lap of 1 minute 55.294 seconds, but the Northern Irishman was denied another Snetterton pole by Scot Shedden in the final seconds of Q2.

Turkington had been on a flying lap but failed to improve, leaving him to settle for second.

Excelr8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram was third fastest in the best of the Hyundais, just over three tenths adrift, ahead of the Speedworks Toyota of Rory Butcher in fourth.

In Q1 Butcher had left it until the final minute to move into the shootout positions, having had multiple lap times removed prior to then for track limits exceedances.

Stephen Jelley put his WSR BMW in fifth, ahead of the Ciceley Motorsport BMW of Adam Morgan in sixth.

Ollie Jackson was the best of the MB Motorsport Ford drivers in seventh, with his team-mate Jake Hill for company on the fourth row of the grid after series leader Hill improved in the final seconds of Q2 in his fully-ballasted Focus.

PMR’s Dan Lloyd and Team BMW’s Tom Oliphant completed the top ten, the latter having had his best time deleted for exceeding track limits.

Dan Rowbottom improved on his final lap, but it was ultimately not quite enough to get the Team Dynamics driver into Q2, as he missed out by two tenths on continuing into the top ten shootout.

Chris Smiley proved to be Excelr8 Motorsport’s second-best driver in 12^th, the Northern Irishman a tenth of a second further back in his Hyundai.

Several big names missed out on progressing into Q2. Reigning champion Ash Sutton missed out on a top half of the field grid position, as the Infiniti driver struggled for pace and was only 16^th, 1.425 seconds off the pace.

Likewise, Josh Cook was only 17^th, BTC Racing’s best-placed driver in a difficult session for the Brackley squad, with the Hampshire driver lamenting carrying ballast around the Norfolk circuit.

Jessica Hawkins out-qualified Jason Plato on her return to the series, putting the Ford Focus in 18^th ahead of the two-time champion in 19^th.

The second Laser Tools Racing Infiniti of Aiden Moffat also struggled, the Scot ending up in 21^st having also had two lap times disallowed for track limits exceedances.

Team HARD’s Glynn Geddie failed to post a time and will start from 29^th and last for Sunday’s first race.

Race one is scheduled to get underway at 11:35 BST on Sunday.

Q2 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type-R	4	1:55.208	–
2	2		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	5	1:55.371	0.163
3	80		Tom INGRAM	Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	4	1:55.700	0.329
4	6		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	4	1:56.012	0.312
5	12		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	5	1:56.030	0.018
6	33		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	5	1:56.156	0.126
7	48		Ollie JACKSON	MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square	Ford Focus ST	4	1:56.262	0.106
8	24		Jake HILL	MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square	Ford Focus ST	5	1:56.403	0.141
9	123		Daniel LLOYD	Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	5	1:56.492	0.089
10	15		Tom OLIPHANT	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	4	1:56.826	0.334

Q1 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	2		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	7	1:55.294	–
2	80		Tom INGRAM	Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	8	1:55.585	0.291
3	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type-R	5	1:55.620	0.326
4	15		Tom OLIPHANT	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	9	1:55.710	0.416
5	6		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	8	1:55.905	0.611
6	24		Jake HILL	MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square	Ford Focus ST	9	1:55.956	0.662
7	12		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	9	1:56.076	0.782
8	48		Ollie JACKSON	MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square	Ford Focus ST	10	1:56.131	0.837
9	123		Daniel LLOYD	Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	9	1:56.140	0.846
10	33		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	11	1:56.155	0.861
11	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type-R	10	1:56.355	1.061
12	22		Chris SMILEY	Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	10	1:56.460	1.166
13	3		Tom CHILTON	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	11	1:56.543	1.249
14	31		Jack GOFF	Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct	CUPRA Leon	10	1:56.592	1.298
15	4		Sam OSBORNE	Racing with Wera & Photon Group	Ford Focus ST	11	1:56.711	1.417
16	1		Ash SUTTON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	9	1:56.719	1.425
17	66		Josh COOK	BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	10	1:56.809	1.515
18	21		Jessica HAWKINS	Racing with Wera & Photon Group	Ford Focus ST	11	1:56.860	1.566
19	11		Jason PLATO	Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	10	1:56.948	1.654
20	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions	CUPRA Leon	10	1:56.986	1.692
21	16		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	13	1:57.033	1.739
22	18		Senna PROCTOR	BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	10	1:57.078	1.784
23	41		Carl BOARDLEY	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	11	1:57.098	1.804
24	23		Sam SMELT	Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	9	1:57.501	2.207
25	99		Jade EDWARDS	BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	10	1:57.847	2.553
26	96		Jack BUTEL	EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	10	1:58.220	2.926
27	62		Rick PARFITT Jr	EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	10	1:58.319	3.025
28	28		Nicolas HAMILTON	ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading	CUPRA Leon	8	1:58.458	3.164
29	88		Glynn GEDDIE	Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct	CUPRA Leon	0	No time	N/A