Colin Turkington heads BMW 1-2-3 in scorching Snetterton qualifying

Colin Turkington headed up a Team BMW 1-2-3 in qualifying for the British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton, despite having no hybrid boost available to him in the session.

The result is Turkington’s third pole in a row at the Norfolk circuit, although the championship leader was pushed all the way by MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill.

Turkington first hit the top of the times around nine minutes into the session, with an effort of 1 minute 56.222 seconds, before he was briefly deposed by Excelr8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram.

A minute later Turkington returned to the top with a 1:55.994, before team-mate Hill went quickest with a lap of 1:55.870.

That then stood until two minutes to go, when both Hill and Turkington took to the track for their final runs. Both drivers were going quicker, but Hill slid at Coram curve and lost time, meaning he failed to improve, as Turkington then pipped him with a lap which was just 0.065 seconds faster.

Notably, in the searing temperatures (the track surface measured 39°C), times were nowhere near the lap record of 1:54.737 set in 2019 by Ingram.

Thus the top three ended up in the same order as at the second round at Brands Hatch, with Turkington claiming a 27^th career pole ahead of Hill and Team BMW team-mate Stephen Jelley.

Ingram was left as the top Hyundai driver in fourth, 0.344 seconds adrift, ahead of Ciceley Motorsport’s Adam Morgan in fifth.

Jason Plato continued to be the leading BTC Racing driver, qualifying his Honda in sixth for his best Saturday performance of the season so far, four tenths from pole.

Team Dynamics’ Daniel Rowbottom was seventh, despite having a lap time disallowed for exceeding track limits.

NAPA Racing’s Dan Cammish and Ash Sutton had both been outside the top ten for the first 20 minutes of the half-hour session, but a late improvement for Cammish saw him end up in eighth.

The top ten was completed by Excelr8’s Tom Chilton and Toyota’s Ricky Collard.

Sutton had dropped to 11^th in the closing minutes and as the reigning champion sought to improve he went wide at the first corner, suffering a huge high-speed slide onto the dusty grass and scuppering his final chance to improve.

Likewise, Excelr8’s Daniel Lloyd had a big slide of his own with ten minutes to go heading into the Esses, but the Hyundai driver had sufficient time left in the session to go out and improve his time, although it still left him in 12^th.

Team HARD’s Bobby Thompson was the leading CUPRA in 13^th, whilst Gordon Shedden put his Team Dynamics Honda in 14^th.

Josh Cook continued to struggle for straight-line speed, ending up in 22^nd and once again languishing towards the bottom of the speed trap figures.

A disastrous session for the Toyota of Rory Butcher left him down in 26^th, after the Scot had a lap time disallowed for exceeding track limits that would have elevated him up to just 20^th. Like Cook, Butcher, in the TOCA engine-equipped Toyota, has been struggling for top speed.

Race one is scheduled to get underway at 12:08 BST on Sunday.

Session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	500		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	12	1:55.805	–
2	24		Jake HILL	ROKiT MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	13	1:55.870	0.065
3	12		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	11	1:56.128	0.323
4	80		Tom INGRAM	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	11	1:56.149	0.344
5	33		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	12	1:56.184	0.379
6	11		Jason PLATO	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	10	1:56.208	0.403
7	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	10	1:56.281	0.476
8	9		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	12	1:56.317	0.512
9	3		Tom CHILTON	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	9	1:56.420	0.615
10	21		Ricky COLLARD	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	11	1:56.472	0.667
11	1		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	11	1:56.602	0.797
12	123		Daniel LLOYD	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	11	1:56.695	0.890
13	19		Bobby THOMPSON	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	11	1:56.747	0.942
14	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	10	1:56.767	0.962
15	42		George GAMBLE	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	12	1:56.776	0.971
16	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	10	1:56.836	1.031
17	97		Ash HAND	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	11	1:56.875	1.070
18	777		Michael CREES	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	12	1:57.037	1.232
19	16		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	13	1:57.045	1.240
20	96		Jack BUTEL	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	11	1:57.190	1.385
21	17		Dexter PATTERSON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	11	1:57.249	1.444
22	66		Josh COOK	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	12	1:57.268	1.463
23	77		Sam OSBORNE	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	11	1:57.357	1.552
24	99		Jade EDWARDS	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	12	1:57.828	2.023
25	48		Ollie JACKSON	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	12	1:57.866	2.061
26	6		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	10	1:58.280	2.475
27	28		Nicolas HAMILTON	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	12	1:58.303	2.498
28	20		Will POWELL	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	10	1:59.003	3.198
29	62		Rick PARFITT JR	Uptonsteel with Euro Car Parts Racing	Infiniti Q50	8	1:59.339	3.534