Colin Turkington secures 30th career pole at Knockhill

Team BMW’s Colin Turkington scored his 30^th career pole position in the British Touring Car Championship at Knockhill, as championship leaders Tom Ingram and Ash Sutton struggled.

Having ended the day’s earlier practiced sessions in fourth and sixth respectively, Northern Irishman Turkington stepped up a gear for qualifying, putting his BMW on top of every session he competed in.

The four-time champion was almost three tenths clear of Sutton in his Q1 group, before going two tenths of a second quicker in Q2 to end up a fraction under a tenth ahead of team-mate Adam Morgan.

In the final part of qualifying, Turkington found a further tenth to claim a 30^th career pole, ahead of a season-best qualifying effort bu Power Maxed Racing’s Árón Taylor-Smith.

Taylor-Smith had been in second for much of the ‘Quick Six’ session, and the Irishman came tantalisingly close to a second BTCC pole, missing out by just 0.035 seconds after improving close to the end of the session.

Adam Morgan will start directly behind team-mate Turkington by qualifying in third, ahead of practice pace-setter Daniel Rowbottom in fourth, who was the best of the NAPA Racing UK quartet.

Speedworks Motorsport’s Josh Cook was the fastest Toyota driver in fifth, two tenths from pole, ahead of the factory-backed Corolla of Andrew Watson in sixth, the northern Irishman having had five lap times disallowed in Q3 for exceeding track limits.

Laser Tools Racing’s Jake Hill was the leading driver to miss out on progression beyond Q2, putting his BMW in seventh, but still ahead of points leader Ingram.

NAPA’s Dan Cammish was eighth, with the top ten completed by EXCELR8’s Tom Chilton and Power Maxed’s Mikey Doble.

Daryl DeLeon had a strong session as the leading CUPRA racer in 11^th, impressively out-qualifying NAPA’s Sutton, who ended up in 12^th after being ‘surprised’ by his lack of pace which left him over four tenths away from the Q2 pace.

Toyota’s Rob Huff will start from 13^th, having just missed out on getting out of his Q1 group by 0.013 seconds, with Speedworks Aiden Moffat in 14^th alongside on the grid.

Points leader Ingram will thus start Sunday’s opening race from 15^th, having been seventh in his Q1 group but slower than both Huff and Moffat’s Toyotas in the other Q1 session.

EXCELR8’s Ronan Pearson was 16^th on aggregate, ahead of Restart’s Racing’s Chris Smiley, the Northern Irishman having threatened to pull a surprise early on in his group before slipping back as the session went on.

Race one is scheduled to get underway at 11:45 BST on Sunday.

‘Quick Six’ results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	20		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	11	50.862	–
2	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	10	50.897	0.035
3	33		Adam MORGAN	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	11	50.982	0.120
4	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	11	51.045	0.183
5	66		Josh COOK	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	11	51.074	0.212
6	11		Andrew WATSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	10	51.153	0.291

Q2 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	20		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	11	50.949	–
2	33		Adam MORGAN	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	10	51.047	0.098
3	66		Josh COOK	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	9	51.058	0.109
4	11		Andrew WATSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	10	51.066	0.117
5	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	9	51.092	0.143
6	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	9	51.128	0.179
7	24		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	11	51.186	0.237
8	27		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	10	51.235	0.286
9	3		Tom CHILTON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	10	51.333	0.384
10	88		Mikey DOBLE	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	10	51.347	0.398
11	18		Daryl DELEON	Duckhams Racing with Bartercard	CUPRA Leon	10	51.355	0.406
12	1		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	10	51.406	0.457

Q1 Group 2 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	20		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	11	51.109	–
2	1		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	8	51.381	0.272
3	3		Tom CHILTON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	9	51.424	0.315
4	33		Adam MORGAN	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	11	51.443	0.334
5	24		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	11	51.445	0.336
6	66		Josh COOK	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	10	51.571	0.462
7	80		Tom INGRAM	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	9	51.595	0.486
8	14		Ronan PEARSON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	10	51.609	0.500
9	222		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	10	51.635	0.526
10	22		Nick HALSTEAD	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	9	52.358	1.249

Q1 Group 1 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	11		Andrew WATSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	9	51.277	–
2	88		Mikey DOBLE	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	9	51.298	0.021
3	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	9	51.301	0.024
4	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	10	51.406	0.129
5	27		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	10	51.416	0.139
6	18		Daryl DELEON	Duckhams Racing with Bartercard	CUPRA Leon	10	51.459	0.182
7	12		Rob HUFF	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	10	51.472	0.195
8	16		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	10	51.492	0.215
9	77		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	10	51.666	0.389
10	29		Scott SUMPTON	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	10	52.371	1.094