Colin Turkington struggles with grip issues

Colin Turkington was left to wonder what might have been after qualifying at Thruxton, with grip issues leaving the BTCC points leader down in 15th on the grid.

Turkington endured a tricky campaign that included a trip off track at the complex after taking avoiding action when he came across the Cupra of Nicolas Hamilton going slowly on the racing line.

Even putting that to one side, Turkington lacked the pace to challenher towards the sharp end of the grid as his record of scoring a top ten position on the grid for each event this season came to an end.

“Fifteenth is not where I want to be on the grid, but I was missing grip over the whole lap,” he said. “We’ve been chasing the set-up all day and we have made some progress. I just thought we’d be in better shape for qualifying than we were able to show.

“I was disrupted quite early on when another car blocked the middle of the track and I locked up and went off at the Complex, but I’d still have hoped to be higher. We’ll work on things overnight and I’m sure we’ll have a good racecar, so the aim will be the same as always; score as many points as possible and hope to get a bit of luck with the reversed grid.”