“Unexpected” pole for returning Andy Priaulx

Andy Priaulx was delighted with his “unexpected” pole position at the opening round of the 2015 British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch.

The BMW driver topped the time sheets with a lap of 48.411 seconds on his return to the British series for the first time since 2002.

“It’s a dream start,” Priaulx told TouringCarTimes. “I didn’t expect to be fighting for pole – it would’ve been nice and I expected to be competitive but you never know going in to any qualifying session where you’re going to end up.”

Priaulx’s pole time came just before the session was red flagged for a stricken car at Graham Hill Bend, which helped the three-time World Touring Car champion hold his place as drivers struggled to get back to speed in the ten minute shootout.

“I think I lost a little bit of grip on my last set,” he said. “Maybe the track got a bit slower or the tyre combination we used didn’t work, but we’ll work that out in the debrief. Maybe it’s tyre pressures, maybe it’s track we just don’t know.”

The Guernseyman now heads in to his first touring car sprint race for five years, having competed in the longer race format of DTM and GT racing since leaving the WTCC.

“Some of the toughest stints in my life were in a GT car last year,” explained the West Surrey Racing driver. “The BMWs were screwed a bit on Balance of Performance so I was driving for 6th place for two hours with pressure, so I’m quite happy to have these 25 lap races. It’ll be nice, I’ll be able to get out and have a cup of tea after! But it’ll be hard, I don’t know what the driving standards are like, I can only imagine so we’ll see tomorrow.”