Daryl DeLeon secures second successive pole at Brands Hatch

Daryl DeLeon scored his second successive British Touring Car Championship pole position in qualifying at Brands Hatch, as neither of the two drivers’ title contenders Ash Sutton or Tom Ingram made it into Q3.

DeLeon had started the qualifying session with the second-best time in his Q1 group, before going fastest in Q2 by just 0.026 seconds.

The WSR driver then went out last in Q3 and initially posted a lap time of 1 minute 28.949 seconds, which would also have been good enough for pole, but lost the lap due to exceeding track limits.

With less than 30 seconds to go, NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish went quickest with a 1:28.953, before DeLeon usurped him on his final effort with a lap of 1:28.930, just 0.023 seconds faster than Cammish.

In a close session the top four drivers were covered by less than a tenth of a second, with NAPA’s Daniel Rowbottom qualifying in third ahead of the leading Team Vertu Hyundai of Tom Chilton in fourth.

Adam Morgan was fifth in his Hyundai, whilst Laser Tools Racing’s Jake Hill was sixth, the reigning champion having backed out of his final lap.

Championship leader Tom Ingram qualified in seventh, missing out on progressing to the ‘Quick Six’ session by just 0.012 seconds despite having the least TOCA Turbo Boost of any driver in the field.

Ingram nevertheless won the Goodyear Wingfoot Award as the best qualifier of the season and qualified ahead of title rival Ash Sutton, who was only 11^th.

Separating the title rivals were WSR’s Charles Rainford in eighth and Toyota duo Gordon Shedden and Árón Taylor-Smith in ninth and tenth respectively.

Sutton was 11^th with a lap of 1:29.832 – almost half a second than he had been earlier in the session – with the four-time champion lamenting ‘an issue’ with his car in the session.

WSR’s Aiden Moffat completed the Q2 contingent in 12^th, a distant nine tenths off the pace.

Team Vertu’s Senna Proctor had a surprise early exit in Q1 and will start 13^th for race one, the first time this year that the Hyundai driver hasn’t made it into Q2.

Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley was the top Independent driver in 14^th, starting directly ahead of team-mate and title rival Daniel Lloyd, who was 15^th.

Un-Limited Motorsport’s Dexter Patterson was 16^th, the CUPRA driver having spun off on the exit of Sheene corner on his last lap, ahead of Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble in 17^th, who also had a high-speed half-spin at Clark Curve at the end of Q1.

Toyota’s Josh Cook pulled off the circuit at Pilgrim’s Drop in Q1 with a lack of oil pressure curtailing his session, leaving him to start from 22^nd and last for race one.

The opening race on Sunday gets underway at 11:25 BST.

‘Quick Six’ results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	2		Daryl DELEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	5	1:28.930	–
2	27		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	6	1:28.953	0.023
3	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	5	1:28.963	0.033
4	3		Tom CHILTON	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	5	1:28.988	0.058
5	33		Adam MORGAN	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	5	1:29.032	0.102
6	1		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	6	1:29.385	0.455

Drivers failing to progress from Q2

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
7	80		Tom INGRAM	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	4	1:29.121	0.126
8	99		Charles RAINFORD	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	7	1:29.133	0.138
9	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	6	1:29.160	0.165
10	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	6	1:29.604	0.609
11	116		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	6	1:29.832	0.837
12	16		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	7	1:29.898	0.903

Drivers failing to progress from Q1

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
13	18		Senna PROCTOR	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	6	1:29.538	0.619
14	22		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	6	1:29.650	0.442
15	123		Daniel LLOYD	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	6	1:29.581	0.662
16	17		Dexter PATTERSON	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	5	1:29.874	0.666
17	88		Mikey DOBLE	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	CUPRA Leon	6	1:29.594	0.675
18	77		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	6	1:30.564	1.356
19	50		Nick HALSTEAD	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	CUPRA Leon	5	1:32.075	3.156
20	19		Max BUXTON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	5	1:34.126	4.918
21	28		Nicolas HAMILTON	Powder Monkey Brewing Co with Esidock	CUPRA Leon	2	No time	N/A
22	66		Josh COOK	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	2	No time	N/A