Tom Chilton breaks 14-year pole duck at Donington Park

Tom Chilton secured pole position in a damp qualifying session for the British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park, heading Team Vertu team-mate Tom Ingram.

Light rain descended on the East Midlands circuit just before the start of the session, although both Q1 groups were able to pass with the field using slick tyres.

Come Q2, the rain had intensified slightly, resulting in several drivers opting to run wet tyres – including Ash Sutton, Daniel Rowbottom and Daniel Lloyd.

However, the rain didn’t intensify as much as teams had expected, and the drivers on slicks ended up progressing as the aforementioned trio failed to progress.

That resulted in a more mixed up ‘Quick Six’ sextet, with Chilton claiming his first pole position since Knockhill in 2011 – and the longest gap between outright pole positions in BTCC history.

Ingram was three tenths of a second adrift in an EXCELR8 Motorsport 1-2, whilst Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble would have been an impressive third fastest as the top Independent.

However, Doble, who had earlier been quickest of all in the rain-affected Q2, failed the ride height check at the end of the session, sending the CUPRA driver to the back of the grid for race one.

Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley was thus third, whilst WSR’s Daryl DeLeon and Team Vertu’s Senna Proctor in fourth and fifth respectively completed the Q3 runners, all of whom went out on wet tyres which quickly dropped off in a final session which became drier towards the end.

Dan Cammish was the top NAPA Racing UK driver in sixth, ahead of team-mate Daniel Rowbottom in seventh.

Team Vertu’s Adam Morgan was eighth, with Restart Racing’s Daniel Lloyd and NAPA’s Ash Sutton completing the top ten.

Sutton had struggled in Q2 after heading out on wet tyres, before pitting for slicks too late in the session at a point when the rain had temporarily intensified.

Laser Tools Racing’s Jake Hill was 11^th, having had all of his Q2 lap times disallowed for track limit exceedances.

None of the Toyota drivers progressed beyond Q1, with Gordon Shedden the best of the Corolla drivers in 12^th, the Scot now also running the M-Sport TOCA engine along with team-mate Árón Taylor-Smith.

Dexter Patterson ended up as the top CUPRA driver in 13^th after Doble’s disqualification, ahead of Taylor-Smith in 14^th – the Irishman lamenting the loss of his best lap time for exceeding track limits.

Charles Rainford was 15^th, the WSR driver lacking boost on his first lap in Q1 as a result of an electrical issue which forced him to pit when the track conditions were at their best.

Aiden Moffat was 16^th directly behind his BMW team-mate, with NAPA’s Sam Osborne in 17^th.

Josh Cook qualified his Toyota in 18^th on his return to the Speedworks-run team, with the 34-year-old thus the top Corolla driver running the Neil Brown Engineering-tuned power unit.

Race one is scheduled to get underway at 11:30 BST on Sunday.

‘Quick Six’ results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	3		Tom CHILTON	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	5	1:43.129	–
2	80		Tom INGRAM	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	4	1:43.482	0.353
3	22		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	6	1:44.524	1.395
4	2		Daryl DELEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	6	1:44.653	1.524
5	18		Senna PROCTOR	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	6	1:45.247	2.118

Drivers failing to progress from Q2

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
6	27		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	6	1:44.018	3.037
7	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	6	1:44.306	3.325
8	33		Adam MORGAN	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	5	1:44.379	3.398
9	123		Daniel LLOYD	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	5	1:45.064	4.083
10	116		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	5	1:51.778	10.797
11	1		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	4	Disallowed	N/A

Drivers failing to progress from Q1

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
12	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	6	1:33.990	0.332
13	17		Dexter PATTERSON	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	5	1:35.730	1.989
14	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	6	1:34.060	0.402
15	99		Charles RAINFORD	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	5	1:36.331	2.590
16	16		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	6	1:34.102	0.444
17	77		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	5	1:37.625	3.884
18	66		Josh COOK	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	6	1:34.224	0.566
19	28		Nicolas HAMILTON	Powder Monkey Brewing Co with Esidock	CUPRA Leon	5	1:41.240	7.499
20	19		Max BUXTON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	5	Disallowed	N/A
21	50		Nick HALSTEAD	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	CUPRA Leon	5	1:41.279	7.538
22	88		Mikey DOBLE	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	CUPRA Leon	6	Disallowed	1.332*

* Gap to Q3 pole position time before lap time disallowed.