BTCC Silverstone: Mat Jackson takes second consecutive pole position
Mat Jackson claimed a second straight British Touring Car Championship pole position with a commanding performance in Silverstone qualifying
The Motorbase driver bagged his first pole for the team at Rockingham last time out and its EcoBoost-powered Ford Focus flew on Silverstone's short national layout as well.
Setting four times good enough for pole, practice pacesetter Jackson ended up with a best of 58.078s - more than two tenths clear of anyone else.
Such was his advantage in a car with no ballast that the same gap covered championship leader Gordon Shedden - whose second place came with 75kg on board - back to Jason Plato in 10th.
Plato struggled in his Team BMR Volkswagen CC for much of a session and only a late improvement hauled him onto the fifth row - eight places behind championship rival Shedden.
Starting behind the Jackson/Shedden front row will be Sam Tordoff's WSR BMW and Andrew Jordan's MG, with both drivers looking to bounce back from trying weekends at Rockingham.
Dave Newsham jumped to third at one stage before getting shuffled to fifth in his Power Maxed Racing Chevrolet Cruze, though his rookie team-mate Josh Cook could not replicate his strong practice pace and wound up 16th.
Colin Turkington was one of a number of drivers to lose their best time for exceeding track limits, but the 2014 champion still wound up fifth and best of the BMR VWs.
Tom Ingram, Aron Smith and Jack Goff split Turkington and his team-mate Plato in completing the top 10.
STARTING GRID
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Mat Jackson | Motorbase | Ford | 58.078s | - |
2 | Gordon Shedden | Honda | Honda | 58.284s | 0.206s |
3 | Sam Tordoff | WSR | BMW | 58.344s | 0.266s |
4 | Andrew Jordan | MG | MG | 58.361s | 0.283s |
5 | Dave Newsham | Power Maxed | Chevrolet | 58.375s | 0.297s |
6 | Colin Turkington | Team BMR | Volkswagen | 58.383s | 0.305s |
7 | Tom Ingram | Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota | 58.385s | 0.307s |
8 | Aron Taylor-Smith | Team BMR | Volkswagen | 58.389s | 0.311s |
9 | Jack Goff | MG | MG | 58.433s | 0.355s |
10 | Jason Plato | Team BMR | Volkswagen | 58.465s | 0.387s |
11 | Matt Neal | Honda | Honda | 58.536s | 0.458s |
12 | Rob Collard | WSR | BMW | 58.542s | 0.464s |
13 | Adam Morgan | Ciceley Racing | Mercedes | 58.548s | 0.470s |
14 | Rob Austin | Rob Austin Racing | Audi | 58.554s | 0.476s |
15 | Mike Bushell | AmD | Ford | 58.603s | 0.525s |
16 | Josh Cook | Power Maxed | Chevrolet | 58.616s | 0.538s |
17 | Jeff Smith | Eurotech | Honda | 58.711s | 0.633s |
18 | Hunter Abbott | Rob Austin Racing | Audi | 58.716s | 0.638s |
19 | James Cole | Motorbase | Ford | 58.716s | 0.638s |
20 | Aiden Moffat | Aiden Moffat Racing | Mercedes | 58.739s | 0.661s |
21 | Martin Depper | Eurotech | Honda | 58.980s | 0.902s |
22 | Tony Gilham | Team Hard | Toyota | 59.044s | 0.966s |
23 | Daniel Welch | Welch Motorsport | Proton | 59.328s | 1.250s |
24 | Nicolas Hamilton | AmD | Audi | 59.631s | 1.553s |
25 | Simon Belcher | Handy Motorsport | Toyota | 59.814s | 1.736s |
26 | Stewart Lines | Houseman Racing | Toyota | 59.848s | 1.770s |
27 | Derek Palmer Jr. | Infiniti | Infiniti | 59.969s | 1.891s |
28 | Alex Martin | Team Parker | Ford | 1m00.076s | 1.998s |
29 | Andy Priaulx | WSR | BMW | 59.007s | 0.929s |
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