Colin Turkington: ‘We were clever with strategy and worked it well’

Colin Turkington was pleased with a strong weekend in the British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch, having achieved both consistency along with a win and a podium in Kent.

Team BMW’s Turkington went into the second event of the season sixth in the drivers’ standings, but left in fourth overall, closer to the top of the table, thanks to a win, third and fifth.

The Northern Irishman qualified his BMW in a strong second on Saturday, and jumped into the lead at the start of the race. Thereafter, the soft-tyre-shod Turkington used strategy to his advantage and won by over a second from Ash Sutton.

With reduced hybrid and the medium tyre in use for race two, Turkington held on to a podium place, taking third at the chequered flag.

The top 11 race two finishers were reversed for race three, leaving the four-time champion to start from ninth on the grid. Gaining four places, Turkington took the finish in fifth, meaning he leaves Brands Hatch just 18 points adrift of series leader Dan Cammish.

“It was a really strong day,” said Turkington. “We haven’t had the fastest car, but we still scored really well with the BMW and winning is excellent.

“We’ve got good points in the bag. It’s so difficult to set expectations because it is so competitive. So all we can do is prepare well, keep working hard through the weekend and just grind it out.

“We maximised the opportunity of starting on the front row in race one by using the soft tyres when we had the most hybrid boost.

“It probably looked simple to those sat at home, but it was a real game of cat and mouse, trying to second guess the guys behind whilst feeling our way through what was really the first long run on that rubber.

“There’s a big difference between the soft and medium tyre options and in race two Ash and Tom [Ingram] were able to capitalise while I had to wait for the grip to come to me on those mediums.

“I didn’t have the hybrid to really fight back and ultimately, I have to be happy with picking up a podium.

“I’ve benefitted a little bit from others’ misfortune in race three to finish where I did, but overall, we were clever with strategy, and we worked it well. That’s been the key.

“It’s six finishes from six races and we go forward to Snetterton in a good place.”