Daryl DeLeon pips Gordon Shedden to pole position at Silverstone

Daryl DeLeon produced a sublime lap in the closing moments of Silverstone qualifying to clinch his first-ever pole position in the British Touring Car Championship.

Having been one of the perennial pace-setters in practice at the Home of British Motor Racing, the West Surrey Racing driver was the cream of the crop as wet-dry conditions played its part in deciding the grid for tomorrow’s triple-header.

After comfortably progressing into the Quick Six Shootout, DeLeon made the switch to the wet tyre compound with just minutes remaining and he quickly charged to the top of the times in his BMW 330i M Sport to snare his maiden pole in the series.

Three-time champion Gordon Shedden had looked as though he was on course for pole position at one stage however he would ultimately settle for second place in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport – a season-best for the team.

Reigning champion Jake Hill bounced back from a high-speed spin at Copse to secure third place ahead of lead Independent Daniel Lloyd, who hustled his Restart Racing Hyundai to a best starting position of the campaign in fourth.

Hot on his heels and two of the drivers to first make the switch to wet tyres was Josh Cook and Senna Proctor, who were fifth and sixth respectively. Rounding out the top ten was Alliance Racing’s Dan Rowbottom, BMW duo Aiden Moffat and Charles Rainford, and Aron Taylor-Smith.

Remarkably, neither championship contender was able to break into the top ten as Ash Sutton failed to progress out of Q2, settling for 12th in the end. Points leader Ingram endured further frustration as he could only hustle his EXCELR8 Hyundai to 14th overall.

Team-mates of Sutton and Ingram, Dan Cammish and Tom Chilton, would endure suffer the most however as they were both disqualified from qualifying for both failing ride height checks in their respective machines.