Despite carrying an extra 27kgs of success ballast, due to his third place Championship position, Colin Turkington showed why he has been a title contender for the majority of the season when placing his bio-fuel Team RAC MG on the front row of the grid for the first of tomorrow's BTCC races.
- Round 10 - Silverstone - qualifying
Despite carrying an extra 27kgs of success ballast, due to his third place Championship position, Colin Turkington showed why he has been a title contender for the majority of the season when placing his bio-fuel Team RAC MG on the front row of the grid for the first of tomorrow's BTCC races.
Setting a time of 1m00.587s during the early stages of the qualifying session, Colin held onto provisional pole until ex-Team Atomic Kitten team-mate Gareth Howell posted a faster lap time of 1m00.411s placing Colin second.
With Colin focusing on reclaiming his second place in the Drivers' Championship, his campaign received a boost as Jason Plato managed only 13th place on the grid. After claiming his front row starting position Colin said: "I'm delighted as before the weekend started I didn't really expect to be so competitive and would have settled for a top six starting position as Silverstone is a power circuit with some quick straights. The guys have done a fantastic job with the car and we only narrowly missed out on pole. We're in good shape for tomorrow."
With Matt Neal completing the top-three line up tomorrow, does Colin have a race strategy? He commented: "The team manager has told me to drive fast and win!"
Rob Collard showed some good early pace in the qualifying session improving on his previous free practice times, but was his session was hampered by a technical problem. He explained: "The car was running well and my lap times were definitely improving but the car developed a problem with the battery which effected the running at lower revs. I'm still in the top ten and it was fortunate that I managed to set a good time early in the session. I'm on the tail-end of the front runners and in a competitive position to make progress in the race."
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Notes to editors:
About RAC
RAC is one of the UK's most progressive motoring organizations, providing services for both private and business motorists. Whether it's roadside assistance, windscreen repair and replacement, learning to drive, vehicle inspections and checks, legal and financial services or up-to-the-minute traffic and travel information - RAC is able to meet motorists'' needs. RAC incorporates BSM, RAC Auto Windscreens, RAC Direct Insurance and HPI.
Aviva bought RAC last year. The acquisition brings together RAC's powerful brand and customer base with the expertise and leading position in motor insurance of Norwich Union Insurance (part of Aviva). Norwich Union is the UK's largest insurer, insuring one in seven motor vehicles and with a market share of around 14%.
About Aviva
Aviva is the world's fifth-largest insurance group (based on gross worldwide premiums for the year ended 31 December 2005) and the largest insurance services provider in the UK. We are one of the leading providers of life and pension products in Europe and are actively growing our long-term savings businesses in Asian markets, Australia and the USA. Our main activities are long-term savings, fund management and general insurance. We have premium income and investment sales of Ł36 billion and Ł332 billion of assets under management. We have 58,000 employees serving 35 million customers.