Cook was allowed just 1.5 seconds of hybrid usage per lap on his BTC Racing Honda Civic Type R, but that did not prevent him from lowering Jake Hill’s previous session-topper by 0.077 seconds on the final runs.
The performance also meant that Cook, seven times a winner at Thruxton, became the first non-BMW driver to qualify on the BTCC front row in 2022.
“I’m really pleased for the team because you never know if the pace from free practice will carry over,” said Cook, who was quickest in the pre-qualifying running.
“As more rubber goes down the track evolves, and I struggled a bit with balance in the car and that was hurting laptime.
“We did a bit of a change and my God, it went the other way.”
On a circuit that is traditionally Honda country, Hill was delighted to keep up his 100% record of qualifying on the front row since switching to the West Surrey Racing BMW team.
Hill, who had 4.5s of hybrid use on his 330e M Sport, moved to the top of the times during the middle runs, but was unable to retaliate when Cook went quicker.
Dan Cammish, with the full 15s of hybrid use, bounced into contention in the very final minute of the session by moving his Motorbase Performance-run Ford Focus into third position. He too was within 0.1s of Cook’s time in a good recovery after losing his first run when a wheelpin fell out.
Four-time champion Colin Turkington, like WSR BMW team-mate Hill, had 4.5s of hybrid and burst up the order from 16th to third in the closing stages, only for Cammish’s improvement to demote him to fourth.
Ash Sutton, with 3s of hybrid use on his Motorbase Ford, led the way on the opening runs.
Sutton went quicker on his next run, but this was deleted due to track limits – it turned out that it made no difference to his eventual position of fifth, although he set the quickest theoretical best on combined sector times.
Dan Rowbottom was the leading Team Dynamics Honda in sixth, although his slowing for the pitlane caught out Sam Osborne, who smacked his Motorbase Ford into the Civic as they exited the chicane.
Like Sutton, Jason Plato (BTC Honda) was well to the fore on the opening runs – in his case third – and improved, only for a track-limits deletion, which again made no difference to his final position of seventh.
Championship leader Tom Ingram was allowed no hybrid at all, but qualified his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N in eighth position.
The fifth row houses Gordon Shedden’s Dynamics Honda and Stephen Jelley’s WSR BMW.
