Colin Turkington ‘confident’ after strong Silverstone qualifying

Colin Turkington was in a confident mood following British Touring Car Championship qualifying at Silverstone, where the Team BMW driver ended up on the front-row of the grid following a wave of penalties for his rivals.

Turkington had originally put his BMW in fourth for the opening race on Sunday, but when Power Maxed Racing duo Árón Taylor-Smith and Mikey Doble in front were penalised, he moved up to second.

It means the Northern Irishman starts alongside title rival Tom Ingram for the first race, as he seeks to continue to reduce a 43-point deficit to the top of the table.

Turkington had actually been quickest of all in Q2, despite a lack of flying laps, but with the conditions quickly changing, he ended up second in Q3 behind Ingram.

“You have no time to adapt your car to wets – you’re basically just bolting wets onto a dry setup,” said Turkington to TouringCars.Net. “But I’m really happy to be fourth.

“I went a little bit quicker than the time I did in Q2. In such unpredictable conditions like that, I was just pleased to make it through each stage.

“To get out of Q2 I only had one lap to do the time. I did a few laps on slicks to see if it was worth pursuing, but by the time we pitted for wets and did the ride height [adjustments] we only had time for one lap. I was pleased to get through to Q3 but that was as much as we had left at that stage.

“I feel confident after having felt the car in the wet. Obviously, you don’t know what you’re going out into and the grip level on the circuit but given what I felt in qualifying I do feel confident.

“All I can do is drive as quickly as I can. It’s difficult when you’re chasing three other guys down – they all need to drop a chunk of points. You’ve just got to keep going, not in the hope that will happen, but unpredictable weather like we see this weekend can throw up opportunities.

“I’m 43 points back which is quite a chunk but I’ve just got to try and close the season out as best as I can.”