Hill clinches convincing Knockhill BTCC pole position
ROKiT MB Motorsport BMW's Jake Hill romped to a convincing British Touring Car Championship pole position after comfortably setting the fastest time in qualifying at Knockhill.
The BMW 330e M Sport driver looked the driver to beat from the very word go of the 30-minute qualifying shootout after an early 50.8s effort left him poised to clinch pole.
Having become the first driver to break the 51-second barrier this weekend, Hill gradually chipped away at his initial benchmark, before settling for an eventual 50.726s lap around the infamous Scottish venue.
A brief red-flag towards the end of the session reset the clock to five-minutes, which gave the rest of the field one last chance to derail Hill's afternoon, but the BMW driver's lap proved too hard to beat.
Defending three-time champion Ash Sutton came closest to spoiling Hill's party in second position. At one point, Sutton drew to within 0.076s of Hill's pole-position time.
However, as Hill extended his advantage, Sutton, who suffered a brief off in the dying moments of the session, was unable to match the BMW's rate of progression.
Nevertheless, during a session which was dominated by RWD machinery, Sutton puts his NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus on the front-row, amidst a near top-six BMW lockout.
Team BMW's Colin Turkington typically produced a lap when it counted the most to snatch a spot on the inside of the second-row in third ahead of Car Gods Racing's Adam Morgan in fourth.
Stephen Jelley very briefly moved ahead of his four-time champion team mate Turkington during the final minutes of the session, but fell back down to fifth ahead of George Gamble in sixth.
As virtue of a dominant display from the BMW contingent, Toyota Gazoo Racing UK's Rory Butcher was next best placed FWD runner in seventh position, ahead of championship leader Tom Ingram in eighth.
Local hero Aiden Moffat and NAPA Racing UK's Dan Cammish completed the remainder of the top-ten in ninth and tenth.
