Reigning champion Colin Turkington says he is happy to have collected valuable points in the 2020 British Touring Car Championship season opener at Donington Park.
After qualifying on pole position yesterday, Turkington emphasised the importance of garnering points as opposed to focussing on the overall win.
The four-time BTCC champion would lose out to rival Dan Cammish after tangling with Ash Sutton, but told ITV he was happy to accrue solid points given the circumstances.
“The priority is to finish and score well three times if I can and I know from previous years it’s difficult to win them all so for me it’s a fantastic result and for Team BMW,” said Turkington.
“I got a point for leading and pole, my car was very fast but we were just losing too much time through the final chicane where the track was a bit dirty.
“That said, very happy with P2.”
Having led the opening laps away from pole position, Turkington came under immediate pressure from Sutton, who had jumped Cammish at the start in his rear-wheel drive Infiniti Q50.
After laps of battling with Sutton, the pair came to blows at Coppice with Turkington emerging on top as Sutton plummeted down the order.
“I’d hoped to start the campaign and ease my way into the first race! But Ash was on me by the time we got to Old Hairpin and the first two or three laps we were very close indeed,” he explained.
“He got the switchback coming from the Old Hairpin and then we had a bit of contact going into McLeans which let Dan through.
“Then it all bunched up again at Coppice so I was fortunate to come through unscathed and still in second. So it was a frantic opening few laps.”
The second race of the 2020 British Touring Car Championship is scheduled to get underway at 13:30 BST.