Championship leader Colin Turkington explained that he “didn’t have the car in the right place” after he could only manage eighth in qualifying for the season finale of the 2020 British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch.
With the Northern Irishman lingering just outside the top six for the majority of the half-hour session which saw some four red flag stoppages, he was then unable to improve in the dying minutes which saw favourable track conditions due to another interruption that brought qualifying to a premature end.
Despite the result with all four of his title rivals ahead of him on the road, Turkington was positive post-qualifying in that he still believes the result is a ‘good effort’ considering he was carrying maximum success ballast aboard his BMW.
“Being inside the top ten in conditions like it is today with full weight in the car is a good effort, we just didn’t have the car in the right place so I was really having to wring the neck and that’s not always the best way to drive in the wet, you just want to be able to relax and carry the speed but I just couldn’t get from the car what I needed today,” Turkington explained.
“But we’re not far away and I made a change and went out after the red flag to try and find a bit more speed but obviously that didn’t happen.
“P8 is still a good finish, it could have been a lot worse than that so I think we’ve got quite a bit of homework to do tonight to unlock a bit more performance from the 3 Series tomorrow.”
Some consolation for the four-time champion despite the result was that it enabled him to secure the Goodyear Wingfoot Award for collecting the most points across qualifying throughout the 2020 season.
“That’s been a great reward for our qualfying performances all year, it has been probably one of our biggest strengths is getting the car up onto the first couple of rows consistently, nearly every weekend.
“Of course that dictates a bit part of Sunday so I think it’s just reward but I think I just nicked it right at the end just from Dan [Cammish]!”
The opening race of the 2020 British Touring Car Championship season finale at Brands Hatch is scheduled to get underway tomorrow at 10:00 BST.