Turkington storms to pole in breath-taking session
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing's Colin Turkington will start the final British Touring Car Championship race day of 2016 on pole position after beating Tom Ingram by 0.006s in a quite remarkable qualifying at Brands Hatch.
The 30-minute shootout had got underway in relatively dry conditions but Aron Smith's dramatic roll around the Grand Prix loop turned the session on its head following a lengthy red flag delay.
During that delay, the weather turned and the rain began to fall, meaning those who set had already set a dry time within the opening minutes looked to be sitting pretty at the top.
Speedworks Motorsport's Ingram and Subaru's Jason Plato looked to be the main beneficiaries of the inclement conditions while championship leader Sam Tordoff faced the prospect of qualifying down in 15th.
However, the conditions once again took a dramatic turn, which paved the way for Subaru's Turkington to string together a mesmerising sequence of laps.
With the track gripping up lap-by-lap, Turkington eventually post a best effort of a 1 minute 31.838 second lap, just 0.006s ahead of Ingram.
Rob Austin and Plato also threatened but the pair had to settle for the second row in third and fourth.
Hunter Abbott completely an unlikely top-five order ahead of Josh Cook and Jack Goff while it's advantage Gordon Shedden in the title after the reigning champion qualified in eighth, three places ahead of Tordoff in eleventh.
More to follow
