TURKINGTON PIPS TURNER TO BRANDS HATCH POLE POSITION
Colin Turkington has qualified on pole position for the
first of tomorrow’s (Sunday) three Dunlop MSA British
Touring Car Championship rounds at the Brands Hatch circuit
in Kent – by a margin of just 2/1000ths of a second
from Darren Turner.
Northern Irishman Turkington (Portadown) achieved his fourth
pole position in eight race meetings with a best lap time
of 49.446s in his Team RAC BMW 320si. Turner (Leamington Spa),
in his SEAT Leon, had to settle for second with a best time
of 49.448s.
Third was Turner’s team-mate Jason Plato (Oxford),
the championship leader. Plato set a time of 49.628s and with
chief title rival, Vauxhall’s Fabrizio Giovanardi back
in fifth will sense an opportunity to increase his lead.
Plato leads the title race by 14 points from Giovanardi,
with reigning champion Matt Neal (Droitwich), who today qualified
ninth fastest, a further 41 behind in third. Tomorrow’s
BTCC action from Brands Hatch will receive live television
coverage on the ITV4 channel at 12.30pm and then ITV1 at 2.50pm.
Lap times during today’s qualifying session were exceptionally
close, with just 8/10ths of a second covering the 16 fastest
drivers.
Leading positions, BTCC Qualifying, Brands Hatch
(provisional):
1. Colin Turkington (GBR), Team RAC/BMW 320si, 49.446s
2. Darren Turner (GBR), SEAT Sport UK/SEAT Leon, +0.002s
3. Jason Plato (GBR), SEAT Sport UK/SEAT Leon, +0.182s
4. Tom Chilton (GBR), VX Racing/Vauxhall Vectra, +0.238s
5. Fabrizio Giovanardi (ITA), VX Racing/Vauxhall Vectra, +0.260s
6. Mat Jackson (GBR), Jacksons MSport/BMW 320si, +0.293s
7. Gordon Shedden (GBR), Team Halfords/Honda Civic, +0.360s
8. Tom Onslow-Cole (GBR), Team RAC/BMW 320si, +0.370s
9. Matt Neal (GBR), Team Halfords/Honda Civic, +0.404s
10. Mike Jordan (GBR), Eurotech-John Guest-Speedfit/Honda
Integra, +0.411s
Turkington, fifth in the championship standings, is chasing
his third victory of the season. He said: “The car’s
felt great all through the practice sessions and then qualifying.
Now to convert that into a win which would give me the pole
for race two as well. The BMW’s rear-wheel-drive should
give me an advantage off the start, but I was on pole here
back in April and the SEAT beat me away. I’ll not be
giving an inch.”
Turner, seventh in the standings and inside the top three
in seven of this year’s eight qualifying sessions, added:
“I think the closeness of the times in qualifying are
a taster of how competitive it will be tomorrow. Colin knows
he’s not in for an easy ride. Importantly, Jason and
I are both ahead of the two Vauxhalls which, for SEAT, we
need to be as we really want those Manufacturers’ and
Teams’ titles as well.”
Plato, who won two of April’s opening three rounds
at Brands: “Because of the ballast, we’ve had
to be very precise about the car’s set-up. Every thousandth
of a second and every grid position count around here and
we wrung the absolute maximum from the car. Third is OK as
it means we’re out of the real thick of the action going
into that first corner tomorrow and can get our heads down
and be up with the leaders straight away. Obviously, starting
in front of Fabrizio is a bonus, but he’s no mug. He’ll
be in there somewhere.”
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