Colin Turkington has taken pole position in qualifying for the British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park, beating MG’s Jason Plato and Honda’s Gordon Shedden in a damp and drying session.
Qualifying began on a drying circuit, resulting in the times continuing to tumble throughout the session. Team BMR’s Alain Menu was the first to set a meaningful time, before Plato went fastest after around 10 minutes into the session. The MG driver remained on top for the next ten minutes, improving his time several times.
With ten minutes remaining however the session was red-flagged when WIX Racing’s Adam Morgan went off at Druids. The pause necessitated barrier repairs and the session resumed after a lengthy 15-minute delay.
When the session resumed, it was Turkington who took the initiative, going fastest with three minutes remaining and improving on his subsequent attempt to take his first pole of the season.
Rob Collard cemented a strong qualifying session for eBay Motors by qualifying in fourth with a late improvement.
Sam Tordoff was fifth fastest, ahead of Rob Austin in sixth who benefitted from not needing to change his tyres over during the restart.
Mat Jackson was the top Airwaves Racing driver in seventh, ahead of Quantel Bifold’s Marc Hynes in eighth, who secured his best qualifying result of the season so far.
Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram improved to ninth in the closing minutes of the session, ahead of the third Ebay Motors car of Nick Foster who completed the top ten.
Just missing out on top ten qualifying results due to the late improvements were Team BMR’s Aron Smith and Airwaves Racing’s Fabrizio Giovanardi.
Matt Neal, who had been ninth, qualified his Honda in 14th after having his best time removed at the end of the session. Alain Menu was just one position further back in his Team BMR Volkswagen, despite having topped the times early on.
Jack Clarke ended the session nine seconds prematurely when he went into the barriers for the second time of the day at Druids. The Crabbie’s Racing driver qualified in 22nd, but his car will require front-end repairs before the first race on Sunday.
Further problems for the Welch Motorsport Protons saw Ollie Jackson start the session, before returning to the pits half-way through to have the team’s only functioning throttle component switched to Dan Welch’s car. They qualified in 28th and 31st respectively.
Top ten times
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 5 | I | Colin TURKINGTON |  |
eBay Motors | BMW 125i M Sport | 10 | 1:42.310 | |
| 2 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 12 | 1:42.959 | 0.649 |
| 3 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Tourer | 11 | 1:43.140 | 0.830 |
| 4 | 10 | I | Rob COLLARD | |
eBay Motors | BMW 125i M Sport | 13 | 1:43.459 | 1.149 |
| 5 | 88 | M | Sam TORDOFF | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 11 | 1:43.493 | 1.183 |
| 6 | 101 | I | Rob AUSTIN | |
Exocet Racing | Audi A4 | 12 | 1:43.632 | 1.322 |
| 7 | 6 | I | Mat JACKSON | |
Airwaves Racing | Ford Focus ST | 11 | 1:43.690 | 1.380 |
| 8 | 888 | M | Marc HYNES | |
Quantel Bifold Racing | MG6 | 11 | 1:43.848 | 1.538 |
| 9 | 80 | I | Tom INGRAM | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 12 | 1:43.853 | 1.543 |
| 10 | 18 | I | Nick FOSTER | |
eBay Motors | BMW 125i M Sport | 12 | 1:43.863 | 1.553 |