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Donington Park BTCC: Colin Turkington puts WSR BMW on pole

Colin Turkington dominated the British Touring Car Championship qualifying shootout at Donington Park, securing pole by a massive 0.644 seconds during a heavily interrupted session

Prior to the first of three red flags the WSR driver set a 1m09.871s in his BMW 330i M Sport, and when running resumed drivers struggled to improve - leaving Turkington clear of points leader Josh Cook and Ashley Sutton.

After rain hit the two practice sessions, and with more forecast for qualifying, drivers felt it was imperative to bank an early time.

In the cold conditions, many of the front-wheel-drive runners opted to pit and swap their warm front tyres onto the rear but lost time from the stops as the weather deteriorated.

That left the rear-driven cars to fight it out, with Andrew Jordan initially setting the pace with a 1m11.246s ahead of team-mate Turkington.

The reigning BTCC champion did improve, briefly leading with a 1m10.770s, but he had his time deleted for exceeding track limits to leave an improving Tom Ingram top.

In response, Turkington then pulled out a 1m09.871s - his eventual pole time - as a red flag with was called 21 minutes remaining.

Team Hard driver Bobby Thompson had lost the rear end of his Volkswagen CC on the approach to the Old Hairpin and slid off into the gravel.

For pausing the session, he had his time deleted and was not able to continue. Not having set a representative lap time, he lines up 30th and last.

After a lengthy stoppage to retrieve the VW, the top 10 struggled to better their earlier efforts as light rain arrived over the second sector of the lap.

Nicolas Hamilton then caused another red flag with five minutes to go. He had survived a scare at Old Hairpin and rejoined across the grass but then lost his Motorbase Ford Focus RS at the same place a lap later and also wound up in the gravel.

As the session continued for a final shootout, again no one could match their previous times leaving Turkington on top as a final red flag was waved in the last minute.

When Chris Smiley slid across the grass, ex-Formula 1 driver Mark Blundell had passed the rejoining Honda Civic Type R but unsettled his Audi S3 and so continued into the gravel at McLeans.

The stewards called time on the session then, with Turkington lining up on pole ahead of Cook, Sutton and free practice pacesetter Smiley.

Sam Tordoff will line up fifth for the first race ahead of Tom Ingram and Team Dynamics pairing Dan Cammish and Matt Neal - celebrating 20 years since his first BTCC win in 1999, for which he earned £250,000.

Turkington's team-mate Tom Oliphant finished ninth, followed by Rob Collard's Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra.

Ollie Jackson split the Astra drivers, with Jason Plato 12th from Tom Chilton.

Jordan, in the third WSR BMW, failed to beat his 1m11.246s that had initially taken him top, eventually slipping to 16th.

Qualifying result

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap
1 Colin Turkington WSR BMW 1m09.871s -
2 Josh Cook BTC Racing Honda 1m10.515s 0.644s
3 Ash Sutton BMR Racing Subaru 1m10.535s 0.664s
4 Chris Smiley BTC Racing Honda 1m10.638s 0.767s
5 Sam Tordoff AmD Tuning Honda 1m10.650s 0.779s
6 Tom Ingram Speedworks Motorsport Toyota 1m10.691s 0.820s
7 Dan Cammish Team Dynamics Honda 1m10.700s 0.829s
8 Matt Neal Team Dynamics Honda 1m10.713s 0.842s
9 Tom Oliphant WSR BMW 1m10.773s 0.902s
10 Rob Collard Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 1m10.868s 0.997s
11 Ollie Jackson Motorbase Performance Ford 1m10.891s 1.020s
12 Jason Plato Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 1m10.905s 1.034s
13 Tom Chilton Motorbase Performance Ford 1m11.015s 1.144s
14 Adam Morgan Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 1m11.019s 1.148s
15 Aiden Moffat Laser Tools Racing Mercedes 1m11.131s 1.260s
16 Andrew Jordan WSR BMW 1m11.246s 1.375s
17 Stephen Jelley Team Parker Racing BMW 1m11.283s 1.412s
18 Matt Simpson Simpson Racing Honda 1m11.509s 1.638s
19 Rory Butcher AmD Tuning Honda 1m11.554s 1.683s
20 Jack Goff Team Hard Volkswagen 1m11.618s 1.747s
21 Senna Proctor BMR Racing Subaru 1m11.663s 1.792s
22 Jake Hill Trade Price Cars Racing Audi 1m11.677s 1.806s
23 Rob Smith Excelr8 Motorsport MG 1m11.694s 1.823s
24 Michael Crees Team Hard Volkswagen 1m11.860s 1.989s
25 Carl Boardley Team Hard Volkswagen 1m11.932s 2.061s
26 Nicolas Hamilton Motorbase Performance Ford 1m12.759s 2.888s
27 Daniel Rowbottom Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 1m12.867s 2.996s
28 Sam Osborne Excelr8 Motorsport MG 1m13.162s 3.291s
29 Mark Blundell Trade Price Cars Racing Audi 1m15.573s 5.702s
30 Bobby Thompson Team Hard Volkswagen - -


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