Saturday sweep for Rory Butcher with first Toyota pole

Rory Butcher capped a perfect Saturday at Silverstone after topping the times in the second showdown qualifying session of the season to snare his first pole position since his switch to Speedworks.

The opening phase of the session would prove to be a frenetic affair as drivers battled to make it into the top ten shootout – with the close nature of the times being it was wide open as to who would earn a place in Q2.

As had been the case in free practice, it was Butcher who led the way in the Toyota Corolla before a red flag was thrown after a spin for Tom Chilton at turn one after he suffered a left-rear puncture.

Butcher would remain out front ahead of Colin Turkington and Tom Ingram as the clock ticked down, although there were improvements behind – most notably from Dan Rowbottom who jumped up into fourth having been one of the last drivers to set a timed lap after an electrical issue.

Ash Sutton was fifth quickest despite the additional ballast in the Infiniti to make it through to the showdown, alongside Josh Cook, Dan Lloyd, Jason Plato, Aiden Moffat and Stephen Jelley – who made it in by just 0.002 ahead of Chilton.

Further down the order, Tom Oliphant missed out in twelfth place, with Gordon Shedden down in 14th after a wild moment saw him go sideways at Brooklands mid-way through the session.

Jake Hill meanwhile would struggle with the extra weight on his car and was only able to put his Ford Focus in 23rd – although he will move up a place on the grid having been behind the Hybrid car in the hands of Andrew Jordan.

Jordan was 20th quickest, but will start – as planned – from the pitlane.

The ten minute shootout then commenced to determine who would get onto pole, with the rear-wheel drive cars going after a time straight away but a number of the front-wheel drive cars taking the decision to do the usual tyre swaps.

Ingram laid down a marker with a 57.456s lap in the Hyundai to go onto provisional pole ahead of Sutton and Moffat, with Moffat then improving into second and Cook moving ahead of Sutton into third spot.

Rowbottom then also jumped ahead of Sutton – with the championship leader then losing his best time to track limits.

Butcher’s first Q2 flyer saw him briefly take second place before both Cook and Moffat went ahead, with the Scot moving to within 0.054s of pole in the Infiniti.

With less than two minutes to go, Butcher went fastest of all in the second sector to split Ingram and Butcher and on the following lap, went fastest if all in sector one. Although he then lost time in sector two, a personal best in sector three meant he went just 0.016s quicker than Ingram onto pole.

It meant a first pole of the year for the Speedworks driver – who hadn’t previously got the Toyota onto the front row – with Ingram having to settle for second spot, but ahead of his main championship rivals.

Moffat continued his good form from Croft as he went third fastest in the lead Infiniti with a lap that would be just 0.070s away from pole, with Cook, Lloyd and Turkington rounding out the top six.

Rowbottom put his Honda into seventh with Sutton only able to take eighth, although that remained a strong result considering the fact the was carrying maximum ballast on the Infiniti.

Jelley and Plato rounded out the top ten.