Colin Turkington grabs Brands Hatch pole position as BMWs lock out top four places

Colin Turkington scored pole position in qualifying for the British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch, as BMW cars locked out the top four places on the grid.

Team BMW’s Turkington was the first to top the session, and the Northern Irishman went quickest five times in total in the half hour session, as he continually fought to improve his time and return to the top of the timesheets.

Eventually, Turkington put in a time of 47.539 seconds, almost four tenths of a second faster than the previous qualifying lap record for the current generation of cars – and the fastest BTCC qualifying lap since the Super Touring era.

Turkington’s stablemate Jake Hill in the MB Motorsport BMW was second, 0.167 seconds adrift, creating a reversal of the front row of the grid from Donington Park, which infamously led to the two fighting on the first lap of the first race of the season last time out.

Stephen Jelley put his Team BMW 3-Series in third, the Leicestershire racer admitting to being slightly disappointed to only be on the second row of the grid, a further 0.003 seconds back.

Ciceley Motorsport’s Adam Morgan was fourth fastest, having jumped up from tenth in the closing seconds of the session.

The best non-BMW driver was BTC Racing’s Josh Cook in fifth, the Honda driver just over two tenths of a second off pole, ahead of Excelr8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram in sixth, the championship leader putting in a strong effort despite having no hybrid boost available to him in the session.

George Gamble once again impressed to qualify in seventh, meaning all five WSR-built BMWs are in the top seven positions.

NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish was eighth quickest, the best of the Motorbase drivers on a weekend where they are struggling for pace thus far.

The top ten was completed by Toyota’s Rory Butcher – an early sufferer of losing a lap to exceeding track limits – and Team Dynamics’ Daniel Rowbottom.

His team-mate Gordon Shedden flirted with the top ten in the first half of the session, but the Scot struggled for pace in the second half and ended up in 11^th, just over three tenths off the pace.

Excelr8’s Tom Chilton was 12^th, ahead of the best Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall of Ash Hand in 13^th. Hand’s team-mate Michael Crees had challenged the top times in practice, but in qualifying he couldn’t match that same pace and ended up in 17^th, two tenths slower than his best time from earlier in the day.

Of note, reigning champion Ash Sutton continued to struggle for pace compared to his team-mate and was only 18^th, four tenths off the pace, whilst BTC Racing’s Jason Plato was down in 22^nd, some six tenths off pole.

Race one is scheduled to get underway at 11:30 BST on Sunday, with the action broadcast on ITV4 for race one, before races two and three are shown on the flagship ITV channel.

Session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	50		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	29	47.539	–
2	24		Jake HILL	ROKiT MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	23	47.706	0.167
3	12		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	29	47.709	0.170
4	33		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	27	47.725	0.186
5	66		Josh COOK	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	22	47.757	0.218
6	80		Tom INGRAM	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	26	47.772	0.233
7	42		George GAMBLE	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	29	47.795	0.256
8	9		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	21	47.795	0.256
9	6		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	20	47.796	0.257
10	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	25	47.805	0.266
11	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	28	47.863	0.324
12	3		Tom CHILTON	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	25	47.866	0.327
13	97		Ash HAND	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	24	47.872	0.333
14	21		Ricky COLLARD	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	24	47.901	0.362
15	17		Dexter PATTERSON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	28	47.921	0.382
16	123		Daniel LLOYD	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	24	47.929	0.390
17	777		Michael CREES	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	24	47.962	0.423
18	1		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	22	47.962	0.423
19	19		Bobby THOMPSON	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	24	48.000	0.461
20	16		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	30	48.045	0.506
21	77		Sam OSBORNE	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	27	48.133	0.594
22	11		Jason PLATO	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	23	48.152	0.613
23	48		Ollie JACKSON	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	25	48.159	0.620
24	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	11	48.304	0.765
25	99		Jade EDWARDS	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	26	48.350	0.811
26	28		Nicolas HAMILTON	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	24	48.641	1.102
27	96		Jack BUTEL	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	28	48.978	1.439
28	62		Rick PARFITT JR	Uptonsteel with Euro Car Parts Racing	Infiniti Q50	17	49.147	1.608
29	20		Will POWELL	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	25	49.183	1.644