Vauxhall team-mates come together in Knockhill qualifying

Paul O’Neill’s return to the British Touring Car Championship started with a bit of a blip as he ran into the back of his rookie team-mate Kieran Gallagher at the hairpin at Knockhill, which saw O’Neill qualify a lowly 18th and team-mate Gallagher in 24th position.

Gallagher is driving in the BTCC for the first time this weekend, and has been off the pace although has been improving as each session goes on, eventually qualifying just 2.3 seconds behind the record setting pole position time of Rob Austin.

The 23-year-old was heading into the hairpin with team-mate O’Neill on a fast lap right behind when the two made contact heading into the final hairpin, with O’Neill running into the back of Gallagher’s #23 Insignia under braking. Gallagher was able to continue, but O’Neill was forced to pit immediately with front-end damage which saw him miss the remainder of the session.

“(He just) caught me out with how hard and early he braked,” said O’Neill to TouringCarTimes. “But he’s come and apologised so I can’t ask for anything more. I was three or four tenths up on my best lap and I was flashing and flashing, but when the kids come in it’s difficult for them as they’re having to look forward.”

“My car in particularly has probably been the best in particular on the brakes out of the top six cars, and I tried to brake as early as I could. It’s one of those things, he’s apologised, that’s the way it goes.”

Starting 18th for the first race after finishing 12th in the second practice session, O’Neill hopes to break into the top positions in the first two races and hopefully score a chance with the reverse grid draw for race three.

“The car’s really good, I think it’s a top ten car just about so if we can do that in the first two races that’ll be great and we can forward from that (in race three).”