Rory Butcher bags first pole of the year at Silverstone

Toyota’s Rory Butcher secured his first British Touring Car Championship pole position since Silverstone last year when he set the fastest lap in Saturday’s qualifying session at the Northamptonshire circuit.

Both of the Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyotas had been on form in the morning’s practice sessions, with Butcher and team-mate Ricky Collard never outside of the top six places.

The Scot, who is still seeking his first 2022 win, then went even better in qualifying, lapping the 1.6-mile circuit in 57.374 seconds to edge out MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill by 0.037 seconds for pole.

Butcher’s lap was close to, but not faster than, the lap record of 57.349 seconds posted by Dan Cammish two years’ ago.

Top BMW racer Hill will line up alongside on the front row of the grid, having beaten Ciceley Motorsport’s Adam Morgan to the rear-wheel drive bragging rights, with Morgan also being within a tenth of a second of pole.

Excelr8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram was fourth quickest in the leading Hyundai, ahead of NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish in fifth.

Neither of the Motorbase-run Fords had featured inside the top ten in the earlier practice sessions, but Cammish and title-contending team-mate Ash Sutton worked together in qualifying to bag top ten grid positions, with Sutton in seventh just behind the second Toyota of Collard ahead.

Team Dynamics’ Gordon Shedden was the best of the Honda drivers in eighth, whilst the top ten was completed by Excelr8’s Daniel Lloyd and Team BMW’s points leader Colin Turkington, Lloyd having swapped places with Turkington when he improved in the final minute.

Stephen Jelley was just behind his team-mate in 11^th, ahead of the best of the BTC Racing Hondas of Josh Cook in 12^th.

Ciceley’s George Gamble caused a five-minute red-flag stoppage at the halfway point of the session when his BMW stopped on track, leaving him to plunge from 12^th in the times down to 17^th as he was unable to re-join the session thereafter.

Although Jason Plato had been BTC’s best driver in both of the day’s earlier sessions, the 54-year-old couldn’t match his pace from first thing in the morning and was only 19^th.

Race one gets underway at 11:40 BST on Sunday.

Session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	6		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	23	57.374	–
2	24		Jake HILL	ROKiT MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	22	57.411	0.037
3	33		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	27	57.462	0.088
4	80		Tom INGRAM	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	20	57.497	0.123
5	9		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	25	57.504	0.130
6	21		Ricky COLLARD	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	24	57.513	0.139
7	1		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	24	57.563	0.189
8	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	21	57.610	0.236
9	123		Daniel LLOYD	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	22	57.674	0.300
10	50		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	26	57.685	0.311
11	12		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	25	57.724	0.350
12	66		Josh COOK	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	25	57.759	0.385
13	48		Ollie JACKSON	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	21	57.780	0.406
14	3		Tom CHILTON	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	18	57.784	0.410
15	97		Ash HAND	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	24	57.789	0.415
16	19		Bobby THOMPSON	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	7	57.801	0.427
17	42		George GAMBLE	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	11	57.839	0.465
18	96		Jack BUTEL	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	24	57.866	0.492
19	11		Jason PLATO	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	22	57.898	0.524
20	777		Michael CREES	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	21	57.916	0.542
21	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	22	57.918	0.544
22	17		Dexter PATTERSON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	28	57.934	0.560
23	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	22	57.974	0.600
24	16		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	24	58.042	0.668
25	99		Jade EDWARDS	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	22	58.202	0.828
26	77		Sam OSBORNE	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	24	58.256	0.882
27	28		Nicolas HAMILTON	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	22	58.621	1.247
28	20		Will POWELL	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	22	58.843	1.469
29	62		Rick PARFITT JR	Uptonsteel with Euro Car Parts Racing	Infiniti Q50	23	59.030	1.656