Colin Turkington experiences ‘tough weekend’ at Snetterton

Team BMW’s Colin Turkington described the third British Touring Car Championship event of the season at Snetterton as a ‘tough weekend’ even though he ceded just eight points in the drivers’ championship battle.

Turkington went into the weekend with just two laps of hybrid deployment available for the opening race due to his championship position.

Having qualified his BMW in ninth, the Northern Irishman was able to gain just one place in a tricky opening race in the dry.

A heavy downpour before race two resulted in a tyre choice lottery, and Turkington followed title rivals Ash Sutton and Tom Ingram in making a last-minute dive for the pits at the start of the race to change to slick tyres.

It was a decision which proved to be the wrong one as a late race downpour swung the pendulum back in favour of those running on wet tyres, leaving Turkington to finish down in 15^th and score a solitary point.

However in the final race, with the correct rubber fitted, Turkington came through the field to gain eight places and finish in seventh, to limit his points loss to Sutton over the trio of races to just eight points.

“It’s been one of the most challenging weekends in terms of weather and it’s been a case of rolling the dice to decide which tyre to be on,” explained Turkington.

“We almost got it right in race two, but ultimately in hindsight we probably should have stayed on the wet. We probably got the tyre choice correct in race three, being back on the medium tyre.

“We’re still P2 in the championship and we scored points in all three races, just about.

“It’s been a tough weekend, but I’ve had really tough weekends before and come away with one point, whereas today I’ve come away with 19 and most of the other top runners have all been in the same boat.

“Onwards and upwards to Thruxton! We’ve learnt a lot this weekend so hopefully we can get back on the podium at Thruxton.”