Colin Turkington happy to maximise qualifying

Colin Turkington said he felt he had got the most from his BMW 330i M Sport after qualifying on the third row of the grid at Silverstone.

The defending BTCC champion had found himself outside the top ten during free practice as he worked on finding the best set-up for his car to take into account the additional 54kg of ballast on his car.

Working alongside team-mate Tom Oliphant in qualifying, the three-time champion was able to benefit from a tow along the long Wellington Straight and suddenly found himself as the best placed of the title contenders on the grid.

Sixth spot leaves him just ahead of Dan Cammish, with closest rival Andrew Jordan, who goes into the weekend ten points behind, having failed to make it into the top ten.

“We’ve got everything we possibly could out of the car today, and to out-qualify both of my main rivals is a big positive,” he said. “I haven’t been completely comfortable with the car today, but we’ve worked at making it better and in qualifying Tom gave me a good tow that I was able to take advantage of. You can feel the weight in the car and when the field is so closely-matched, that makes a big difference.

“I think the BMW will be very fast tomorrow with the weight off, but I need to bank solid points in race one first.”