Colin Turkington surprised to grab pole

Colin Turkington admitted he was surprised to come away from the opening day of track action at Snetterton with a third pole of the BTCC season.

The WSR driver had no hybrid power to use in the session thanks to his position as championship leader but was the man to beat in the vital qualifying session as he edged team-mate Jake Hill to pole.

The Northern Irishman will now seek to continue his impressive recent form at the circuit to fight for victory on race day, with the goal being to try and extend his advantage out front.

“It’s a great result,” he said. “I really wasn’t expecting pole, but we’ve just gone up a notch on the set-up every single run and got the BMW into the sweet spot. We didn’t look so quick in practice, but that’s because I was saving my tyres for qualifying. Sometimes you just have to nudge the car in the right direction, be careful with the tyres in the warm-up phase and get the timing of the lap perfect, because that’s so critical. It’s so easy to start your hot lap with too much temperature or not enough.

Run One was good, but we calmed the rear down a bit for the final run and found a couple of tenths. When you’re with a team like WSR that experience is there so you know you’re going to make the right calls with the car more often than not, and that’s really paid off today. We got it spot-on and I’m looking forward to what we might be able to achieve tomorrow.”