Colin Turkington happy with sixth on Superstars Series debut

2009 British Touring Car champion Colin Turkington was happy to be at the ‘sharp end’ in qualifying on his first appearance in the Superstars Series with Scuderia Giudici at Donington Park. The 31-year-old Northern Irishman was just seven-tenths of a second down on the pole sitter Luigi Ferrara.

Turkington’s best lap came on his first of two runs in qualifying, admitting he was unable to improve on his second run which saw him drop down from provisional pole position at one point to sixth at the chequered flag.

“We’ve been struggling a bit with the brakes all day, and on the second outing I’d lost the brake pedal a bit, so it was tricky to go as fast as I did on the first run,” he told TouringCarTimes. “Sixth is OK, it’s a high-level championship, so for the first time I’m happy enough to be towards the sharp end.”

Looking ahead to tomorrow’s races, where he’ll start right behind championship leader Thomas Biagi’s Mercedes C63 for race one, before the top eight are reversed for race two, Turkington hopes to be able to make progress from the third row of the grid.

“We need to be able to make the car a bit quicker for the race. It was my first time qualifying on Hankook tyres, so it’s a bit different. I went about seven-tenths quicker than I did in Free Practice 2 but there’s tricks with every car that you have to learn.

“We’ll try to make progress in race one if I can, I’d rather try and make progress than just hang about for the reverse grid, so to head towards the podium for race one will be a result.”