Colin Turkington took delight in a 30th career pole position in the British Touring Car Championship, as he beat Árón Taylor-Smith by just 0.035 seconds at Knockhill on Saturday afternoon.
Having been in the top six in both of the day’s earlier practice sessions, Turkington stepped it up a gear in qualifying as he topped all three of the parts of the session he competed in.
In the end, the Northern Irishman did enough to edge out Irishman Taylor-Smtih by a slender margin, securing his third pole position of the season and putting him at the front in qualifying for the second straight event.
“The BMW felt unreal out there, especially in qualifying,” said Turkington. “Qualifying is the first time you put new rubber on and I think we just got it right today.
“You go into these qualifying sessions and you just hope to make it out of Q1. You see the end result, and I’m on pole, but the mentality at the start is just to hope to get through Q1. You just don’t know where the pace is going to be.
“My car was really hooked up and we just chipped away each session and probably found a tenth. The guys told me it’s super close between myself and Árón, so there was not much left! It’s a great start to the weekend.
“I knew I was top of the timesheets, but how much do you risk it going for a lap that’s even quicker? Everything’s already on the edge – it’s a big risk to try and go and find another tenth! You’re almost waiting for the call to say ‘you’re P2, you need to go again’ but that call never came.
“I’m delighted and with Adam [Morgan] in P3 it’s a great qualifying.”