Colin Turkington scored a remarkable British Touring Car Championship pole position at Brands Hatch as WSR BMWs qualified one-two-three on the grid for Team BMW and ROKiT MB Motorsport.
The result marked not only the first top-three lockout on the grid in WSR’s 41-year history, but also a milestone 25th career BTCC pole for Northern Irishman Colin.
“To get not only a pole position, but a one-two-three, is just a fantastic result,” commented Team Principal Dick Bennetts. “It’s the first time in the 41-year history of WSR that we’ve achieved this and a reflection of the quality of car we have in the BMW 330e M Sport.
“Everybody who has worked so hard since Donington deserves this, from the technical team here through to the drivers for what they did on-track. Tomorrow’s when it really matters though so we’ll go through all the details we need to tonight to make sure we can get the job done in the races and leave here with at least one win under our belt.”
Four-time series champion Colin Turkington had not challenged for the top positions during practice, but immediately marked himself out as a pole contender with an ultra-quick early lap in qualifying aboard his BMW 330e M Sport.
He improved his time by two tenths of a second with a third of the session to go; his mark of 47.539s proving unbeatable in the time remaining and maintaining BMW’s record of being the only manufacturer to score a BTCC pole since the beginning of the hybrid era.
Colin’s pole time knocked Donington Park race winner Jake Hill back to second place at his home circuit; the Tunbridge Wells racer having held the top spot at the halfway mark.
In qualifying second, ROKiT MB Motorsport racer Jake made it two front-row results from the two events held so far in 2022.
Stephen Jelley, who had been fastest in the afternoon practice session, pressured his WSR stablemates throughout the 30-minute session and held second spot until the halfway mark before Colin surged to the front.
The Leicester driver’s final lap proved to be his fastest – just 0.003s slower than Jake – which was enough to give him his best BTCC qualifying result since returning to WSR last year.
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