Colin Turkington has criticised Mat Jackson after the third race at Silverstone, after he made contact with Turkington which broke his right-rear suspension and forced him out of the race.
Turkington had been leading the final race of the day, having started from second on the grid. However the eBay Motors driver lost a comfortable lead over Honda’s Gordon Shedden when the safety car was deployed for a single lap on 13 to clear up debris on the circuit. At the restart, Turkington immediately lost a couple of positions.
The eBay Motors driver was then forced to drive defensively for the remainder of the race, before being hit by Jackson on the penultimate lap of the race at Copse and suffering broken suspension.
“We knew we were going to struggle for straight line speed here but going into the third race, things looked good,” said Turkington. “I knew there was a gap to Andrew but we had a chance to score some big points, and it was taken away from us. The Safety Car really hurt up my race as my pace was better in clear air, and it was when I had to defend after the Safety Car that the tyres went away from me.”
The incident has left Turkington 48 points adrift of championship leader Andrew Jordan heading into the final merting at the Brands Hatch, with Turkington admitting that the incident with Jackson has likely cost him a fair shot at the title.
“All five of us fighting for the title were in a delicate position and it’s hard to take that a driver who isn’t in contention for honours could have ended my championship hopes,” added Turkington. “I could have rescued it if it was a little nudge, but he hit me so hard that it broke the rear wheel and I couldn’t have gone any further. It was always going to be a challenge at Brands Hatch and even though I’ll not stop pushing, it’s hard to see how I can overcome the deficit there is now.”