Árón Taylor-Smith claims pole position in wet weather Silverstone qualifying

Power Maxed Racing’s Árón Taylor-Smith claimed a second career British Touring Car Championship pole in qualifying at Silverstone, before later being excluded from the session for failing the post-qualifying ride height check.

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 13^th 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 17^th 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 short-lived elation for Taylor-Smith over what would have been his first pole since Thruxton in 2015 and his second overall, when the roller used to check the ride height of the car after the session appeared to not go under on the left-hand side of his car. The team’s worst fears were confirmed just over an hour later, when Taylor-Smith and team-mate Doble were excluded from the session.

Ingram was second fastest, ahead of the second Power Maxed Vauxhall of Mikey Doble in third, who also had difficulties with the roller at the end of the session. Ingram thus inherited pole when the Vauxhalls were thrown out of the result.

Turkington was fourth fastest, becoming second following the penalties, his BMW struggling in the increasingly less wet conditions in Q3.

Speedworks Motorsport’s Cook was fifth (third after the Power Maxed cars were thrown out), 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 eighth quickest, but facing a three-place grid penalty carried forward from the previous event.

Laser Tools Racing’s Hill was ninth quickest, 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 11^th quickest, one of seven drivers to lose his best lap time in Q2 due to track limit exceedances, with Toyota’s Huff in 12^th as the slowest of the Q2 contingent.

Chilton will start race from 13^th, ahead of NAPA’s Sam Osborne in 14^th, Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley in 15^th, Unlimited Motorsport’s Daryl DeLeon in 16^th and Ash Sutton in 17^th.

Scott Sumpton had a slew of lap times disallowed in his Q1 session for track limits infractions and was 18^th, ahead of Speedworks’ Aiden Moffat in 19^th, the Scot having had an engine change prior to the session. Nick Halstead once again completed the field in 20^th.

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

Original ‘Quick Six’ results (subsequently revised)

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

Original Q2 results (subsequently revised)

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