Adam Morgan was the fastest of the Team BMW drivers in qualifying for the British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park, with all three WSR drivers well-placed in the very close session. Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill was seventh while Colin Turkington is set to line up ninth on the grid for Race One on Sunday.
Jake was the point man in the first practice session as he went sixth ahead of his two WSR stablemates, but then Adam took over as the pace-setter in FP2 with the seventh fastest time in his BMW 330e M Sport, running with an additional allocation of hybrid boost based on his championship position.
Adam, competing at his local track, took that pace into qualifying and comfortably set the third-fastest time in his group in Qualifying 1. With four-time champion Colin fifth, both progressed into Q2.
It was a little less easy for Jake, who was in the second group, with the Kent ace in the all-important top six up right up until his final run. He then scraped through with a time just two-thousandths of a second faster than the target time just as the chequered flag waved to get through to Q2.
The boost-limited Hill and Turkington then dropped out in Q2, with Hill just on the bubble. Despite setting consistent laps he couldn’t find the additional tenth of a second needed to make it through to Q3 and had to settle for seventh, with Turkington a slightly more distant ninth fastest.
Morgan, who had 13 seconds allowance of the 60bhp additional hybrid boost, comfortably progressed through to the ‘Quick Six’ shoot-out, and went on to secure sixth place on the grid in the session, just two tenths away from the top five.
Tomorrow’s three races will be screened live on ITV4 and online on ITV X in the UK and will also be available to watch anywhere in the world on the ITV Sport TikTok channel.
What they said…
Adam Morgan, Team BMW
Colin Turkington, Team BMW
Jake Hill, Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport
Dick Bennetts, Team Principal