British Touring Car Championship leaders Team BMW put on a strong display in qualifying at Oulton Park to set themselves up for another big points haul on raceday.
Colin Turkington and Tom Oliphant qualified third and eighth despite large amounts of success ballast making their WSR-run BMW 330i M Sports two of the heaviest cars on the grid.
“With the amount of success ballast we were carrying, third and eighth is about where I’d have expected us to be, especially with the gaps being as tight as they are,” commented Dick Bennetts, Team Principal. “It’s a shame for Tom that he lost his best lap because of track limits, because that was a really good effort.
“We’re in pretty good shape for the races, but the weather has been impossible to predict across the day so anything could happen with the conditions tomorrow. We just have to be ready to react to whatever’s thrown at us.”
Four-time champion Colin leads the race for the Drivers’ title and carries the maximum 60kg ballast as a result.
After going 15th fastest in mixed weather conditions in opening practice, he improved to sixth in FP2 and then qualified an impressive third; just two tenths of a second away from pole position.
Team-mate Tom Oliphant, who grew up just four miles from Oulton Park in Tarporley, was another to show excellent pace in qualifying after a mid-session tyre change.
Tom, who claimed his first BTCC win a fortnight ago at Brands Hatch, carried 48kg success ballast in qualifying by virtue of lying third in the Drivers’ Championship.
After going 16th in the wet morning practice and improving to ninth in the afternoon, he qualified eighth; less than two tenths of a second behind Colin.
He did set an even faster lap with three minutes left, which would have put him third, but lost this due to unintentionally exceeding track limits at the final corner.
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