Photo: Jakob Ebrey

Colin Turkington maintains championship advantage

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Colin Turkington was able to maintain his lead in the fight for the 2019 BTCC title after slightly extending his lead over fellow BMW driver Andrew Jordan at Snetterton.

On a weekend where the rear-wheel drive 330i M Sport was expected to find the going more difficult, Turkington produced a solid performance on track to qualify in fifth spot, despite the additional success ballast on his car.

From there, a trouble free run to fourth in race one was followed by a fifth victory of the campaign in race two, when he made full use of the soft compound Dunlop tyre to fight his way to the front of the field.

Ninth place in race three on the hard tyre meant three more strong finishes for the Northern Irishman, who now leads Jordan by 36 points heading to Thruxton in two weeks time.

“It’s been a very positive weekend as we didn’t expect to win a race here,” he said. “I can’t recall winning here in a BMW before and it’s not been a strong track for us, but qualifying was key. Getting P5 set up our weekend, and from there, we looked at the tyre strategy for Sunday and then worked to maximise it.

“We knew the car would be quickest on the soft with no weight and we expected that to be race two – and so it proved. We’ve been able to put good points on the board this weekend and have extended our lead a little bit, but what has become clear is how close the pack is now. It means we have to work had to improve what we have because there are some quick cars out there.

“We have to remember that despite our success, this is still a new car and we are still finding our feet with it. When you are out front it is easier to manage things, but when you are in the pack it behaves differently and these are things we are working on.

“Going back to Thruxton next, we had a quick car there earlier in the year so don’t expect to stray too much from what we had and we also have to carry weight which will have an impact. We haven’t been too far away when we have arrived at any circuit so far though, so we’ll do our homework and try to score some consistent points.”