Josh Cook claims first pole of season at Donington Park

Speedworks Josh Cook claimed pole position in qualifying for the British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park, less than a tenth of a second ahead of BMW’s Colin Turkington.

Cook had earlier been third quickest in Q2, and with 11 seconds worth of hybrid deployment available to him in the ‘Quick Six’ session, the Toyota driver made the most of his advantage and went quickest with a lap of 1 minute 33.498 seconds on his penultimate lap in the session.

Prior to that, BMW’s Turkington had been leading the way, but the Northern Irishman had to settle for second, a mere 0.071 seconds behind on the Grand Prix circuit.

Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey doble continued to show impressive pace and was third fastest, beating the leading NAPA Racing UK car of Ash Sutton on his final quick lap.

Fourth-placed Sutton was the only one of the NAPA Fords to make it into the final shootout, a somewhat surprising result given he had been out-performed by team-mates Dan Cammish and Daniel Rowbottom in practice earlier in the day.

Championship leader Tom Ingram was a creditable fifth as the leading EXCELR8 Motorsport driver, despite having the least hybrid of anyone in the field, just 0.176 seconds from pole.

Árón Taylor-Smith made it two Power Maxed Vauxhalls in the final part of qualifying for the first time this season, with the result also being the third consecutive meeting that Taylor-Smith has made the final six.

Laser Tools Racing’s Jake Hill, reportedly feeling under the weather, just missed out on getting into the final part of the session, qualifying his BMW in seventh, less than a tenth from progressing.

BMW’s Adam Morgan, inside the top six for much of Q2, found himself bumped out of the top half dozen with just over a minute to go, ultimately ending up in eighth.

Perhaps one of the most disappointed, though, was NAPA’s Dan Cammish. The Ford driver, who had topped first practice and been third in second practice, struggled throughout qualifying, only just scraping through his Q1 group and then ending up ninth in Q2, over half a second off the pace on a substantially dry circuit compared to earlier.

EXCELR8’s Tom Chilton completed the top ten, with Toyota’s Rob Huff in 11^th after his team changed his steering rack ahead of qualifying, and NAPA’s Sam Osborne in 12^th.

Unlimited Motorsport’s Daryl DeLeon will start race one from 13^th, having been the quickest of those not to get out of Q1, with Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley in 14^th.

NAPA’s Daniel Rowbottom will start 15^th, once again struggling in qualifying after showing strong pace in practice.

Rookie Dan Zelos was 16^th overall, putting in a creditable effort in his first truly dry session and first-ever BTCC qualifying.

Race one is scheduled to get underway at 11:30 BST on Sunday.

‘Quick Six’ results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	66		Josh COOK	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	6	1:33.498	–
2	20		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	7	1:33.569	0.071
3	88		Mikey DOBLE	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	6	1:33.637	0.139
4	1		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	6	1:33.667	0.169
5	80		Tom INGRAM	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	6	1:33.674	0.176
6	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	6	1:33.900	0.402

Q2 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	80		Tom INGRAM	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	5	1:33.850	–
2	20		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	6	1:33.918	0.068
3	66		Josh COOK	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	6	1:33.942	0.092
4	1		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	6	1:34.009	0.159
5	88		Mikey DOBLE	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	6	1:34.090	0.240
6	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	5	1:34.352	0.502
7	24		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	6	1:34.423	0.573
8	33		Adam MORGAN	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	6	1:34.451	0.601
9	27		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	6	1:34.544	0.694
10	3		Tom CHILTON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	5	1:34.649	0.799
11	12		Rob HUFF	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	5	1:35.014	1.164
12	77		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	6	1:35.470	1.620

Q1 Group 2 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	24		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	6	1:35.278	–
2	66		Josh COOK	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	6	1:35.307	0.029
3	20		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	6	1:35.376	0.098
4	33		Adam MORGAN	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	6	1:35.720	0.442
5	1		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	5	1:35.862	0.584
6	12		Rob HUFF	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	5	1:35.915	0.637
7	18		Daryl DELEON	Duckhams Racing with Bartercard	CUPRA Leon	5	1:36.755	1.477
8	222		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	5	1:37.273	1.995
9	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	5	1:37.488	2.210
10	45		Dan ZELOS	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	5	1:39.306	4.028

Q1 Group 1 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	88		Mikey DOBLE	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	5	1:40.948	–
2	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	5	1:41.963	1.015
3	80		Tom INGRAM	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	5	1:42.709	1.761
4	77		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	5	1:42.828	1.880
5	27		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	5	1:43.152	2.204
6	3		Tom CHILTON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	5	1:43.372	2.424
7	22		Nick HALSTEAD	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	6	1:44.510	3.562
8	16		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	5	1:44.837	3.889
9	11		Andrew WATSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	4	1:46.479	5.531
10	29		Scott SUMPTON	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	3	1:47.240	6.292