Jake Hill scored his first British Touring Car Championship pole position as Colin Turkington ensured a front-row lock-out for WSR-run BMW 330e M Sports for the opening race of the season at Donington Park as the series’ hybrid era got underway.
ROKiT MB Motorsport driver Hill and Team BMW’s four-time champion Turkington were separated by just 0.018 seconds in one of the closest sessions in recent years; the pair constantly shaving hundredths off their laptimes as the 30-minute session wore on.
“I’m very pleased with today’s result and a little relieved too as we had a minor technical issue on Jake’s car after practice,” commented Dick Bennetts, Team Principal. “That was unrelated to BMW, which didn’t cause any problems in qualifying.
” For Jake to take pole for his first race with us is a great achievement for him and certainly the last one-two in qualifying was quite a while ago. We definitely have a lot of work to do overnight to make sure everything is ready for the Sunday.
“The first event for hybrid was always likely to throw up some challenges and uncertainties, so we’ll to what we can to make sure we’re not affected.”
With just 0.063s separating the top-four qualifiers, those improvements were necessary and showed the consistency of performance afforded by the BMW 3 Series at the East Midlands venue.
Both Kent ace Jake Hill – who is making his WSR debut this weekend – and Northern Irishman Colin Turkington are aiming to continue the BMW 3 Series’ record of winning in every year it’s competed at Donington since its series debut in 2019.
Home hero Stephen Jelley, aboard the second Team BMW 3 Series, was a strong contender through the day, setting the fifth-fastest time in FP2 and converting that into his best Donington qualifying performance since 2009.
Due to the closeness of the contenders at the front of the field, his lap that was just two tenths of a second from pole put him seventh on the grid; his pace affected by slight contact with the tyre stack at the chicane during the session.
The Leicester racer is confident of moving forwards in tomorrow’s three races, all of which will be shown live on ITV4 from 1050.
Comments