Team BMW’s Colin Turkington was pleased to qualify in fourth for the opening British Touring Car Championship race of the season at Donington Park, even though he couldn’t repeat his front-row performance from last season.
Turkington was fourth in both the regular 30-minute first part of qualifying, and the second 10-minute showdown.
In the end, the Northern Irishman was just over two tenths from pole position, with a lap time which was over half a second quicker than in 2022.
“I’m pleased to be at the pointy end because sometimes you’re never quite sure where you’re going to fall into the pack,” said Turkington.
“The team’s done a good job and we have a set-up that means we’re not going to need to change things too much for race day.
“I don’t think we had pole pace in the BMW, so the positive is that we got the most out of the package and we can really try to take advantage of the track conditions tomorrow.”
Turkington was pipped by WSR stablemate Jake Hill, who put his Laser Tools Racing / MB Motorsport BMW in third, leaving Team Principal Dick Bennetts pleased with the overall qualifying result.
“To have two BMWs on the second row is a pretty strong start,” said Bennetts. “We’d like to have repeated last year’s one-two, but to have Jake and Colin in a three-four is a strong result.
“Some of the other cars look strong on peak lap time, but the BMW is very good on tyre wear and looked excellent on the longer runs in practice so that all bodes well for our four drivers tomorrow. Let’s see what it brings.”
Team newcomer Adam Morgan was also in the top ten showdown, qualifying in eighth, whilst Stephen Jelley missed out on progressing beyond the first part, qualifying in 15th.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 11:30 BST on Sunday.