Photo: PSP Images

Stephen Jelley hit with post qualifying penalty

West Surrey Racing’s Stephen Jelley will start from fourth on the grid for the opening race of the weekend at Snetterton after being hit with a post-qualifying penalty.

Jelley had posted the third fastest time behind team-mates Colin Turkington and Jake Hill in a 1-2-3 for the BMW squad but was then called before the clerk of the course over an incident with Dan Cammish during the session.

Jelley was deemed to have impeded the Ford driver and was handed a penalty that drops him a spot on the grid and moves Tom Ingram up into third spot.

“The day’s gone well, but I’m disappointed to start fourth, which I guess shows the level I expect to be performing at this year,” he said. “Andy [Race Engineer] and I have been working on set-up a lot since the tyre test here and I’ve definitely picked up a few things from Jake and moved my driving style more towards his.

“It’s helped me to extract a bit more from myself and the BMW in the past two events, but today I made a small error at Turn Six on my first run which probably cost me two tenths and gave up what was potentially a pole lap. The penalty’s a shame, but I didn’t intentionally impede anyone; I’ve simply reacted to what two cars right in front of me have done.

:Even so, there’s still a podium at the very least on the table for tomorrow.”