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British Touring Car Championship
Silverstone - Qualifying - 17/9/16

By MJP Media | 17 September 2016

MG Racing RCIB Insurance's Ashley Sutton takes pole position for the first race tomorrow in the qualifying session from Silverstone.

Ashley Sutton qualifies 1st to take pole position for the first race tomorrow

Following the earlier free practice sessions where Adam Morgan and Ashley Sutton topped the timesheets, attention fell on the qualifying session for the first of tomorrow's three Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship races from Northamptonshire's Silverstone circuit and with pole position, the opportunity to earn the first championship point of the weekend. With 13 drivers still in with a mathematical chance of winning the Drivers' Championship trophy, every point counts!

With championship leader Sam Tordoff carrying the maximum 75Kg of success ballast, the drivers took to the track with the Halfords Yuasa Racing duo of Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden first out in their Honda Civic Type Rs. Silverline Subaru BMR Racing's Colin Turkington will start the first race from the back of the grid regardless of his qualifying position following a penalty handed down from the Rockingham meeting.

Tom Ingram put his Toyota Avensis on the front row of the grid

Several laps were completed before competitive lap times were posted with Silverline Subaru BMR Racing team-mates Colin Turkington and Jason Plato the first drivers to break the 1 minute barrier, however it wasn't long before MG Racing RCIB Insurance's Ashley Sutton and Josh Cook went to the top of the timesheet in their MG6GTs. Elsewhere, Team JCT600 with GardX team-mates Rob Collard and Sam Tordoff collided, causing damage to their BMW 125i M Sports.

The championship front-runners were struggling to get into the top of the timesheet. Sam Tordoff was down in 18th with his damaged car, while Matt Neal was the highest placed title contender in 10th place. With Adam Morgan in 3rd and Rob Austin in 4th, numerous drivers were having their lap times disallowed for exceeding the track limits.

Ashley Sutton in his MG Racing RCIB Insurance MG6GT

With less than twelve minutes of the thirty minute session remaining, Speedworks Motorsport's Tom Ingram went 2nd fastest in his Toyota Avensis however his lap time was also disallowed. He responded with another fast lap to re-take 2nd place, just 0.003 seconds behind Ashley Sutton as Andrew Jordan went 4th fastest behind Josh Cook in 3rd. With four minutes left, the session was red-flagged to recover the BKR Volkswagen CC of Mark Howard.

The session resumed with five minutes on the clock for a final shoot-out. At the finish it was Ashley Sutton who claimed pole position for the first race tomorrow with Tom Ingram joining him on the front row of the grid. Qualifying 3rd and 4th, Josh Cook and Andrew Jordan will start on row 2 with Adam Morgan and Rob Austin on row 3. Matt Neal will start on row 4 alongside Hunter Abbott with Aron Smith and Gordon Shedden completing the top ten on row 5. Further down the field, team boss Warren Scott was the fastest of the Silverline Subaru BMR Racing Levorgs while championship leader Sam Tordoff ended the session 17th fastest.

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