Colin Turkington admitted that he was ‘not too disappointed’ to miss out on qualifying on pole position for the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Brands Hatch.
The Northern Irishman was beaten to the top time in Q2 by 0.271 seconds by Dan Cammish, who pinched the top spot in the closing seconds of the increasingly wet session.
Turkington had earlier been third fastest in Q1 with a slightly faster lap than he ended up with in Q2, but in the end he had to settle for a front-row starting position for Sunday’s first race.
“It’s a great result for Team BMW, going into those conditions you could either be in pole or in 15th,” said the Team BMW driver.
“It’s so difficult to be in the right place with the car, because the level of wetness is changing so much.
“Then you start to get some standing water on the track and the car becomes undriveable, then in a few laps it’s cleaned up again. So, I think it’s just trying to keep it on the island – which I didn’t do!
“Given those conditions, I wouldn’t have expected to be challenging for pole, so I’m pleased with second.
“I’m not too disappointed that I am not on pole. Second is arguably a better place to start from and with any luck we’ve got all the wet running out of the way for the season!”
Turkington admitted that finding the optimal lap time in Saturday’s timed session had been as much about luck as it was about taking big risks.
“I was pleased with my performance in both sessions. We were wringing the neck and taking a few risks but that’s what it is all about.
“It was just about having those moments in the right place. You don’t want to be having a big moment on the way to Paddock.
“All credit to the team and the engineers, we’ve got the BMW in such a sweet spot today in these conditions but it’s all change tomorrow, so we’ll start again!”