Jake Hill has won the Goodyear Wingfoot Award as the best qualifier of the 2022 British Touring Car Championship, following Saturday’s session at the Brands Hatch season finale.
The ROKiT MB Motorsport driver put his WSR-run BMW 330e M Sport fifth on the grid ahead of Sunday’s three races, in which he will battle for the title.
“It’s been a very confusing session when you look at the relative pace of the field,” commented Dick Bennetts, Team Principal. “Jake’s lap-times were very consistent so we know that’s probably about where we are – and there was less than a tenth between him and the front row.
“Colin (Turkington) has unfortunately suffered issues with his hybrid system for a second event in a row and that’s very frustrating. From 10th and 11th, he and Stephen (Jelley) will have to do what they can because he, of course, has a bigger gap to make up in the championship than Jake.
“Tomorrow we just have to look at what’s ahead of us, try and make up whatever positions we can, finish as high as possible to try and win the Drivers’, Teams’ and Manufacturers’ titles and just hope that we don’t have a repeat of the hybrid issues we’ve had today.”
Stablemate Colin Turkington – who maintains a chance of the title himself – the Northern Irishman’s Team BMW team-mate Stephen Jelley qualified on the fifth and sixth rows in what was a day full of frustration for all three drivers.
Damp track conditions in morning practice prevented any of the trio from setting a time representative of the BMW’s speed, but big improvements in FP2 appeared to leave all three cars in contention for top-five positions in qualifying.
Local hero Jake – who is just five points away from the series lead with just tomorrow’s three races to go – achieved this with fifth position – just nine hundredths of a second away from the front row.
But for Colin – fourth in the Drivers’ Standings and 27 points away from the series lead with 66 available – there was frustration.
For a second BTCC event in a row, problems with his hybrid system meant that the four-time champion was sometimes unable to access its 30bhp of extra power – which he was entitled to do for 4.5 seconds per lap.
With this intermittent failure afflicting him at key moments of the session, he was restricted to 10th place; 0.7s away from pole position.
Leicester racer Stephen – who is attempting to seal the Teams’ title for Team BMW with Colin on Sunday – was a place further back, having set his fastest time of the session during the early stages.
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