Jake Hill claims Brands Hatch pole as BMWs lock out front row

Jake Hill scored his first British Touring Car Championship pole position of the season in qualifying at Brands Hatch, leading WSR stable-mate Charles Rainford in a BMW 1-2 at the top of the times.

Laser Tools Racing’s Hill, who had earlier trailed Rainford in the opening practice session of the day when he was second, was on the pace from the off in qualifying as he topped his Q1 group by just under a tenth of a second from Rainford.

Hill then trailed Rainford, who topped Q2, by less than a tenth in the second session, but in the all-important ‘Quick Six’ it was Hill on top after he posted a lap of 46.493 seconds on his main run halfway through the session.

Rainford was just 0.021 seconds back in only his second-ever touring car qualifying session, whilst Adam Morgan was the leading Team Vertu driver in third, the Lancashire racer continuing to enjoy an upturn in his performance since returning to front-wheel drive.

Despite having the least turbo boost of any driver in the ‘Quick Six’ session, Team Vertu’s Tom Ingram still managed to put his Hyundai in fourth, two tenths off the pole pace.

Dan Cammish was the sole representative of NAPA Racing UK in Q3, ending up in fifth, whilst Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble was the leading independent in sixth, just over a quarter of a second adrift.

Sam Osborne was seventh, having been pipped to Q3 progression by a late improvement from team-mate Cammish in Q2, with Restart Racing’s Daniel Lloyd in eighth.

WSR’s Daryl DeLeon and Toyota’s Ronan Pearson completed the top ten, the latter being the only Corolla driver to get out of Q1.

After displaying promising pace in practice, Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley was disappointed to only qualify in 11^th, ahead of One Motorsport’s Stephen Jelley in 12^th.

Ash Sutton was one of the highest profile casualties in Q1, the NAPA driver being seventh in his group, half a tenth away from progression, leaving him to start from 13^th for the opening race alongside team-mate Daniel Rowbottom in 14^th.

All four Toyotas ended up in the same Q1 group due to their practice classification, resulting in Árón Taylor-Smith, James Dorlin and Gordon Shedden all failing to progress, with the trio starting race one from 18^th, 20^th and 24^th respectively.

‘Quick Six’ results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	1		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	12	46.493	–
2	99		Charles RAINFORD	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	12	46.514	0.021
3	33		Adam MORGAN	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	10	46.519	0.026
4	80		Tom INGRAM	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	9	46.694	0.201
5	27		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	10	46.706	0.213
6	88		Mikey DOBLE	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	10	46.755	0.262

Q2 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	99		Charles RAINFORD	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	10	46.568	–
2	80		Tom INGRAM	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	6	46.599	0.031
3	1		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	9	46.636	0.068
4	88		Mikey DOBLE	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	10	46.639	0.071
5	33		Adam MORGAN	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	9	46.684	0.116
6	27		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	10	46.704	0.136
7	77		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	12	46.790	0.222
8	123		Daniel LLOYD	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	9	46.839	0.271
9	2		Daryl DELEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	12	46.843	0.275
10	14		Ronan PEARSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	9	46.852	0.284
11	22		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	10	46.945	0.377
12	12		Stephen JELLEY	One Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R	12	46.961	0.393

Q1 Group 2 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	1		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	10	46.746	–
2	99		Charles RAINFORD	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	11	46.818	0.072
3	88		Mikey DOBLE	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	10	46.908	0.162
4	33		Adam MORGAN	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	9	46.929	0.183
5	12		Stephen JELLEY	One Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R	10	47.181	0.435
6	14		Ronan PEARSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	10	47.187	0.441
7	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	10	47.199	0.453
8	777		Michael CREES	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	10	47.216	0.470
9	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	10	47.252	0.506
10	132		James DORLIN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	10	47.272	0.526
11	17		Dexter PATTERSON	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	10	47.369	0.623
12	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	10	47.598	0.852

Q1 Group 1 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	80		Tom INGRAM	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	10	46.961	–
2	2		Daryl DELEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	13	46.991	0.030
3	27		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	13	47.043	0.082
4	123		Daniel LLOYD	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	10	47.085	0.124
5	77		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	12	47.122	0.161
6	22		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	12	47.152	0.191
7	100		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	13	47.206	0.245
8	3		Tom CHILTON	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	12	47.309	0.348
9	66		Josh COOK	One Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R	13	47.314	0.353
10	93		Max HALL	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	11	47.616	0.655
11	28		Nicolas HAMILTON	Powder Monkey Brewing Co with Esidock	CUPRA Leon	10	48.342	1.381
12	50		Nick HALSTEAD	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	12	48.682	1.721
13	16		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	7	49.533	2.572