BTCC Donington Park: Cook takes first pole for over two years as he pips Turkington

Josh Cook achieved his first British Touring Car Championship pole position in over two years after just pipping Colin Turkington to top spot around Donington Park's Grand Prix layout.

The pole was Cook's first since switching to a Speedworks-run Toyota Corolla for this season and he finished up just 0.071 seconds faster than Turkington in the final Quick Six session.

West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport pilot Turkington was attempting to take a third consecutive pole and set the early Q3 pace with a 1m33.569s.

But, with two minutes of the 10-minute session to go, Cook went fractionally faster to snare pole with a 1m33.498s.

Neither driver improved on their final lap, despite Turkington setting the fastest time of anyone in the middle sector

"The car was really good - I just made it do what I wanted and it could dance it around and get a lap time out of it," said Cook.

Just over a tenth adrift of Cook was Power Maxed Racing driver Mikey Doble, who continued the Vauxhall Astra squad's recent run of good qualifying results after team-mate Aron Taylor-Smith was second at Knockhill.

Josh Cook, LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ Toyota Corolla GR Sport (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

Doble achieved third this time, while Taylor-Smith was sixth, as the team was the only one to get two cars into Q3.

Reigning champion Ash Sutton was the only one of the six to improve with their final effort and put his Alliance Racing Ford Focus fourth and still only two-tenths down on Cook.

Points leader Tom Ingram battled the least hybrid power boost of anyone - just one second per lap - but still managed to put his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback fifth.

However, he admitted he was "lucky" to progress from Q1 after going for the "safe option" of wet tyres when the track was still drying following early rain.

Practice pacesetter Dan Cammish was another who only just scraped through Q1, but the NAPA Focus driver was unable to make it into Q3 and will therefore start ninth.

Another frontrunner who failed to progress from Q2, by which point the track had dried, was WSR's Jake Hill, who will line up seventh.

He had been battling the effects of food poisoning all day and was fuelled by jelly babies to boost his energy as he finished best of the rest.

Mikey Doble, Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing

He was not too downbeat with his grid slot - just two places behind key title rival Ingram - especially after having a lack of soft tyres to utilise in qualifying, when drivers were given a free choice of rubber.

The most notable driver eliminated in the opening Q1 groups was Dan Rowbottom's Focus.
He had been showing strong practice pace at his local venue but will start race one down in 15th place after bemoaning a lack of grip at the rear of his Ford.

BTCC Donington Park GP - Qualifying Result

Main Information Additional Data Driver Info

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Main Information
Cla	Driver	#		Car	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	J. Cook LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	66		Toyota Corolla GR Sport	6	1'33.498		76.198
2	C. Turkington Team BMW	20		BMW 330e M Sport	7	+0.071 1'33.569	0.071	76.141
3	M. Doble Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	88		Vauxhall Astra	6	+0.139 1'33.637	0.068	76.085
4	A. Sutton NAPA Racing UK	1		Ford Focus ST	6	+0.169 1'33.667	0.030	76.061
5	T. Ingram Team Bristol Street Motors	80		Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance	6	+0.176 1'33.674	0.007	76.055
6	A. Taylor-Smith Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	40		Vauxhall Astra	6	+0.402 1'33.900	0.226	75.872
View full results