Turkington puts Team BMW on front row at Donington Park

Team BMW’s Colin Turkington qualified in second position for the eighth round of the 2024 British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park, in what was a very strong session for the BMW 330e M Sport as Jake Hill and Adam Morgan locked-out the fourth row.

After two wet free practice sessions, qualifying was almost a complete unknown for every team, with all drivers running with slick tyres on a fairly dry and still improving circuit.

Colin, Adam, and Jake were all in the second part of Qualifying 1 based on their practice positions, and it was Jake who led the way, leading an all-BMW top three to ensure all the WSR-run drivers made it safely through.

In a tight Qualifying 2, Four-time title-winner Colin was the one who made it through to the final session by setting the second-quickest time, while Jake and Adam just missed the top-six cut, qualifying in seventh and eighth places for the first race tomorrow.

Jake’s performance was all the more impressive as the Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport driver struggled with a stomach bug as well as with the smallest hybrid allocation of the BMW drivers, while Team BMW’s Adam was the only competitor using the harder “medium” Goodyear tyre in Q2.

Colin then pulled out his best time of the session on a now dry circuit in the final ‘Quick Six’ shoot-out, improving by a further 0.4s. Although it didn’t secure the Northern Irishman a fourth pole of 2024, it does give him a competitive spot on the front row for Sunday’s first race.

Dick Bennetts, Team Principal, said: “A very good session for Colin in second, and his ideal lap would have been pole so considering he had the same set of tyres through the session he did a great job. Jake’s not feeling very well so he’s done well in seventh, and so has Adam as he was only on medium tyres, so we’ve very happy to have all three cars in the top eight, especially as it was wet in FP1 and FP2 so it was difficult to get a good baseline. Tomorrow, if it stays dry we’ll be in with a good chance. The first two laps are our vulnerable period, so if we can stay out of trouble there we should hopefully be able to score some good points.”