Jake Hill claims maiden pole position at Donington Park

MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill secured his first outright pole position in qualifying for the British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park, opening the series’ new hybrid era by beating WSR stablemate Colin Turkington to the top time.

Hill had been second in qualifying five times previously, but finally broke his pole position duck by securing the top time at a sunny Donington Park on Saturday. Hill’s lap of 1 minute 8.418 seconds was also half a second under the lap record time set just last year.

The BMW driver hit the top of the timesheets with just over ten minutes to go, in a session which saw a 15-minute red flag stoppage after just eight minutes when the Ford Focus ST of Dan Cammish caught fire at McLeans.

Cammish’s car appeared to break a fuel line and a fire quickly took hold of the Motorbase car, which burned for several minutes before the marshals were able to extinguish the flames.

With the Yorkshireman having not posted a competitive lap at the time, he faces starting from the back of the pack on Sunday, providing his NAPA Racing UK team can repair his car overnight.

Team BMW’s Turkington ended up in second, a mere 0.018 seconds slower than fellow WSR driver Hill, the Northern Irishman having improved from sixth to third with four minutes left before putting in another improvement with just two minutes to go to bag second.

Reigning champion Ash Sutton upheld NAPA Racing’s honour with the third best time, just 0.005 seconds further back, ahead of Excelr8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram in fourth.

BTCC rookie George Gamble was an impressive fifth fastest in the Ciceley Motorsport BMW, two tenths off pole, ahead of the leading Honda of Team Dynamics’ Gordon Shedden in sixth.

Team BMW’s Stephen Jelley was in the top five for the first half of the session but soon fell down the order as others improved, the Leicestershire local ending up in seventh.

Adam Morgan put his Ciceley BMW in eighth, with the top ten being completed by Team Dynamics’ Daniel Rowbottom and BTC Racing’s Jason Plato, the latter being the best of the Brackley-based team’s drivers.

Ricky Collard was the leading Toyota in 11^th on his first competitive outing with the team, but his team-mate Rory Butcher endured a frustrating session, the Scot pitting with an issue after completing just six laps and ending up 26^th in the times.

The second-best Excelr8 Hyundai of Daniel Lloyd was in the top ten for the first half of the session but dropped down to 12^th later on.

With his car fully repaired after hitting a tyre stack in first practice, Josh Cook could muster only 16^th fastest, eight tenths off the pace.

None of the Infinitis broke into the top twenty, with Aiden Moffat the best-placed of the Laser Tools Racing cars in 23^rd.

Race one is scheduled to get underway at 11:50 BST on Sunday.

Session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	24		Jake HILL	ROKiT MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	21	1:08.418	–
2	50		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	23	1:08.436	0.018
3	1		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	18	1:08.441	0.023
4	80		Tom INGRAM	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	19	1:08.481	0.063
5	42		George GAMBLE	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	21	1:08.637	0.219
6	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	19	1:08.653	0.235
7	12		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	23	1:08.679	0.261
8	33		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	9	1:08.710	0.292
9	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	19	1:08.794	0.376
10	11		Jason PLATO	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	18	1:08.898	0.480
11	21		Ricky COLLARD	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	20	1:08.932	0.514
12	123		Daniel LLOYD	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	19	1:09.042	0.624
13	77		Sam OSBORNE	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	18	1:09.108	0.690
14	19		Bobby THOMPSON	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	17	1:09.228	0.810
15	3		Tom CHILTON	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	18	1:09.244	0.826
16	66		Josh COOK	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	12	1:09.254	0.836
17	48		Ollie JACKSON	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	17	1:09.397	0.979
18	777		Michael CREES	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	16	1:09.485	1.067
19	97		Ash HAND	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	17	1:09.554	1.136
20	96		Jack BUTEL	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	17	1:09.604	1.186
21	99		Jade EDWARDS	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	15	1:09.967	1.549
22	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	10	1:10.014	1.596
23	16		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	17	1:10.182	1.764
24	28		Nicolas HAMILTON	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	16	1:10.437	2.019
25	62		Rick PARFITT JR	Uptonsteel with Euro Car Parts Racing	Infiniti Q50	19	1:11.370	2.952
26	6		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	6	1:11.802	3.384
27	17		Dexter PATTERSON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	14	1:12.976	4.558
28	9		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	4	1:15.323	6.905