Power Maxed Racing’s Árón Taylor-Smith claimed a second career British Touring Car Championship pole in qualifying at Silverstone, although there remained uncertainty over if it would stand following post-race checks.
Taylor-Smith topped a very wet final part of qualifying, less than a tenth ahead of EXCELR8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram, following a late afternoon rain shower at the Northamptonshire circuit.
The overall session started in the dry, with both of the Q1 groups getting their laps in during dry conditions.
Despite that, it didn’t prevent some surprising results early on. EXCELR8 Motorsport’s Tom Chilton had been fastest in both of the earlier practice sessions, but the 39-year-old elected to run the medium compound rubber in Q1, which ultimately wasn’t fast enough for him to progress and he was knocked out after ending up seventh in his group, which was 13th overall.
Also missing out was Ash Sutton in the second group, the NAPA Racing UK driver continuing to struggle for pace and ending up eighth in his group with a time which was only good enough for 17th overall as the slowest of the quartet of Alliance Racing-run Fords.
As the dozen drivers to progress were preparing for Q2, rain clouds loomed in the humid late September air. Rain began to fall as the session got underway, and most drivers elected to venture out on wet tyres. The exceptions were Jake Hill, Colin Turkington, Josh Cook and Rob Huff, but all four soon came into the pits to switch rubber after exceeding the limits of the grip their tyres provided.
NAPA’s Dan Cammish and EXCELR8’s Tom Ingram swapped the top time once the laps came in during the final five minutes, but it was Team BMW’s Turkington who put in the best lap of Q2.
The rain continued into Q3, where Power Maxed Racing’s Árón Taylor-Smith, who had been late out in Q2 owing to a gear stick issue, put in the fastest lap of all with a time of 1 minute 2.288 seconds.
However, there was uncertainty about whether Taylor-Smith’s pole, which would be his first since Thruxton in 2015 and his second overall, would stand, when the roller used to check the ride height of the car after the session appeared to not go under with ease on the left-hand side of his car.
Ingram was provisionally second, ahead of the second Power Maxed Vauxhall of Mikey doble in third, who also appeared to have difficulties with the roller at the end of the session.
Turkington was fourth fastest, his BMW struggling in the increasingly less wet conditions in Q3.
Speedworks Motorsport’s Cook was fifth, unable to notably improve his Q2 time, ahead of an impressive showing from EXCELR8’s Dan Zelos in sixth, who only ventured out briefly in Q3 with his overall grid position thus thanks to a strong effort in the rain in the earlier Q2 session.
Having briefly topped Q2, Cammish ended up in seventh after being bumped out of the top half dozen later on in Q2, with Toyota’s Andrew Watson joining him on the fourth row of the grid.
Laser Tools Racing’s Hill was ninth, having struggled to keep the heat in the rear tyres of his BMW during the wet-weather session, with the top ten being completed by WSR stablemate Adam Morgan, just under six tenths off the pace in the wet.
NAPA’s Daniel Rowbottom was 11th quickest, one of seven drivers to lose his best lap time in Q2 due to track limit exceedances, with Toyota’s Huff in 12th as the slowest of the Q2 contingent.
Chilton will start race from 13th, ahead of NAPA’s Sam Osborne in 14th, Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley in 15th, Unlimited Motorsport’s Daryl DeLeon in 16th and Ash Sutton in 17th.
Scott Sumpton had a slew of lap times disallowed in his Q1 session for track limits infractions and was 18th, ahead of Speedworks’ Aiden Moffat in 19th, the Scot having had an engine change prior to the session. Nick Halstead once again completed the field in 20th.
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 | 40 |  |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 9 | 1:02.288 | – |
| 2 | 80 |  |
Tom INGRAM | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 9 | 1:02.380 | 0.092 |
| 3 | 88 | |
Mikey DOBLE | Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 8 | 1:02.414 | 0.126 |
| 4 | 20 | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 9 | 1:02.494 | 0.206 |
| 5 | 66 | |
Josh COOK | LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 9 | 1:02.724 | 0.436 |
| 6 | 45 | |
Dan ZELOS | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 3 | 1:02.906 | 0.618 |
Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 20 | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 6 | 1:02.551 | – |
| 2 | 80 | |
Tom INGRAM | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 7 | 1:02.613 | 0.062 |
| 3 | 88 | |
Mikey DOBLE | Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 7 | 1:02.626 | 0.075 |
| 4 | 66 | |
Josh COOK | LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 8 | 1:02.720 | 0.169 |
| 5 | 40 | |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 3 | 1:02.772 | 0.221 |
| 6 | 45 | |
Dan ZELOS | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 8 | 1:02.980 | 0.429 |
| 7 | 27 | |
Dan CAMMISH | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 8 | 1:03.004 | 0.453 |
| 8 | 11 | |
Andrew WATSON | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 7 | 1:03.052 | 0.501 |
| 9 | 24 | |
Jake HILL | Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport | BMW 330e M Sport | 7 | 1:03.115 | 0.564 |
| 10 | 33 | |
Adam MORGAN | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 7 | 1:03.148 | 0.597 |
| 11 | 32 | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 7 | 1:03.229 | 0.678 |
| 12 | 12 | |
Rob HUFF | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 7 | 1:03.263 | 0.712 |
Q1 Group 2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 88 | |
Mikey DOBLE | Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 9 | 57.346 | – |
| 2 | 12 | |
Rob HUFF | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 9 | 57.457 | 0.111 |
| 3 | 33 | |
Adam MORGAN | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 8 | 57.489 | 0.143 |
| 4 | 11 | |
Andrew WATSON | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 8 | 57.559 | 0.213 |
| 5 | 27 | |
Dan CAMMISH | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 9 | 57.611 | 0.265 |
| 6 | 40 | |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 7 | 57.695 | 0.349 |
| 7 | 222 | |
Chris SMILEY | Restart Racing | CUPRA Leon | 9 | 57.750 | 0.404 |
| 8 | 1 | |
Ashley SUTTON | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 9 | 57.897 | 0.551 |
| 9 | 29 | |
Scott SUMPTON | Restart Racing | CUPRA Leon | 9 | 57.996 | 0.650 |
| 10 | 16 | |
Aiden MOFFAT | LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 9 | 58.026 | 0.680 |
Q1 Group 1 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 66 | |
Josh COOK | LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 8 | 57.324 | – |
| 2 | 24 | |
Jake HILL | Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport | BMW 330e M Sport | 9 | 57.465 | 0.141 |
| 3 | 20 | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 10 | 57.484 | 0.160 |
| 4 | 45 | |
Dan ZELOS | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 9 | 57.512 | 0.188 |
| 5 | 32 | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 8 | 57.619 | 0.295 |
| 6 | 80 | |
Tom INGRAM | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 8 | 57.626 | 0.302 |
| 7 | 3 | |
Tom CHILTON | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 9 | 57.720 | 0.396 |
| 8 | 77 | |
Sam OSBORNE | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 8 | 57.746 | 0.422 |
| 9 | 18 |  |
Daryl DELEON | Duckhams Racing with Bartercard | CUPRA Leon | 9 | 57.820 | 0.496 |
| 10 | 22 | |
Nick HALSTEAD | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 8 | 58.419 | 1.095 |