Rory Butcher continues Silverstone Saturday dominance with pole position

Toyota’s Rory Butcher continued his flawless run of pace on Saturday at Silverstone, claiming pole position for the opening British Touring Car Championship race on Sunday.

Butcher was the quickest driver in both Q1 and Q2 in the two-part qualifying session, having topped the first segment with a lap time of 57.383 seconds before going fastest in the crucial Q2 part to claim pole, although his time was slightly slower on a 57.440.

The Scot edged out Excelr8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram, with the Hyundai driver being a mere 0.016 seconds behind despite carrying 30 kg more success ballast than his Speedworks Motorsport rival.

Having secured his maiden BTCC pole last weekend at Croft, Laser Tools Racing’s Aiden Moffat was again on the pace and put his Infiniti in third, again less than a tenth of a second from pole, even though the Scot was carrying ballast (27 kg) into qualifying for the first time.

BTC Racing’s Josh Cook was the leading Honda driver in fourth, ahead of Power Maxed Racing’s Daniel Lloyd in fifth, the Vauxhall driver having persistently sought to obtain a slipstream from Butcher in the second part of the session.

Team BMW’s Colin Turkington was sixth quickest, having had his best lap time deleted for exceeding track limits, ahead of Team Dynamics’ Daniel Rowbottom in seventh.

Championship leader Ash Sutton was eighth, having lost four lap times in the second part due to track limits, his fastest legal lap ultimately being three tenths off pole.

The top ten was completed by BMW’s Stephen Jelley and Power Maxed Racing’s Jason Plato.

Ciceley Motorsport’s Tom Chilton was the top driver to fail to make the cut into Q2, having been just 0.002 seconds away from the cutoff. In fact, Chilton had been fifth at one stage in Q1, but he suffered from a high-speed spin at Turn 1 as a result of a puncture eight minutes into the session, briefly bringing out the red flags.

BMW’s Tom Oliphant was 12^th in Q1, three tenths off the pace, ahead of BTC Racing’s Senna Proctor in 13^th, marking the Honda drivers’ worst qualifying performance since June.

Gordon Shedden was unhappy with the balance of his car and was only 14^th fastest, ahead of Excelr8 Motorsport’s Chris Smiley in 15^th.

The new BTCC Hybrid Toyota, being driven by Andrew Jordan this weekend, was 20^th, half a second off the pace as it undergoes further testing ahead of 2022.

Crucially, MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill, who is currently Sutton’s closest rival in the title fight, was only 23^rd after ending up over half a second off the pace in his Ford, which is carrying 66 kg of ballast. Hill had failed to break into the top twenty all day as he struggled more with the weight at the Northamptonshire circuit than he did just a week ago in Yorkshire.

Race one is scheduled to get underway at 11:30 BST on Sunday.

Q2 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	6		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	8	57.440	–
2	80		Tom INGRAM	Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	10	57.456	0.016
3	16		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	10	57.510	0.070
4	66		Josh COOK	BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	9	57.615	0.175
5	123		Daniel LLOYD	Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	8	57.640	0.200
6	2		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	10	57.678	0.238
7	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type-R	9	57.729	0.289
8	1		Ashley SUTTON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	10	57.774	0.334
9	12		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	10	57.811	0.371
10	11		Jason PLATO	Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	9	57.901	0.461

Q1 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	6		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	13	57.383	–
2	2		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	23	57.452	0.069
3	80		Tom INGRAM	Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	10	57.486	0.103
4	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type-R	14	57.579	0.196
5	1		Ashley SUTTON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	23	57.600	0.217
6	66		Josh COOK	BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	19	57.632	0.249
7	123		Daniel LLOYD	Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	19	57.652	0.269
8	11		Jason PLATO	Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	19	57.656	0.273
9	16		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	24	57.690	0.307
10	12		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	23	57.690	0.307
11	3		Tom CHILTON	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	22	57.692	0.309
12	15		Tom OLIPHANT	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	23	57.703	0.320
13	18		Senna PROCTOR	BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	20	57.721	0.338
14	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type-R	19	57.738	0.355
15	22		Chris SMILEY	Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	21	57.750	0.367
16	41		Carl BOARDLEY	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	23	57.758	0.375
17	48		Ollie JACKSON	MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square	Ford Focus ST	20	57.775	0.392
18	23		Sam SMELT	Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	20	57.788	0.405
19	96		Jack BUTEL	EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	20	57.854	0.471
20	2022		Andrew JORDAN	–	Toyota Corolla BTCC Hybrid	19	57.889	0.506
21	4		Sam OSBORNE	Racing with Wera & Photon Group	Ford Focus ST	20	57.933	0.550
22	33		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	21	57.934	0.551
23	24		Jake HILL	MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square	Ford Focus ST	20	57.945	0.562
24	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions	CUPRA Leon	19	57.973	0.590
25	44		Andy NEATE	Racing with Wera & Photon Group	Ford Focus ST	19	58.091	0.708
26	19		Jack MITCHELL	Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct	CUPRA Leon	13	58.097	0.714
27	62		Rick PARFITT Jr	EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	19	58.108	0.725
28	99		Jade EDWARDS	PHSC with BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	20	58.125	0.742
29	31		Jack GOFF	Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct	CUPRA Leon	17	58.156	0.773
30	28		Nicolas HAMILTON	ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading	CUPRA Leon	17	58.433	1.050