BTCC - Brands Hatch Indy: Cammish beats Turkington to pole after last-gasp flyer
British Touring Car Championship points leader Dan Cammish continues his rich vein of form after producing a sensational lap to secure pole position for Sunday's first race at Brands Hatch.
During what proved to be a highly eventful qualifying, Cammish held his nerve throughout a red-flag strewn afternoon to beat Team BMW's Colin Turkington by almost 0.3s following an emphatic last-gasp flyer.
Having set the fourth fastest time in Q1 to reach the ten-minute Q2 shootout, Cammish looked set to start on the second-row of the grid with Turkington narrowly edging his BMW stablemate Jake Hill at the top of the timesheets by just 0.006s
For much of the shootout, little under 0.1s could separate the top-four runners, which proved to be a straight fight between the NAPA Racing UK Fords and the West Surrey Racing prepared BMWs.
As the chequered flag fell, Turkington looked set to hold onto a famous pole position, but Cammish obliterated the four-time champion's best effort after setting a 54.297s lap.
Turkington ultimately settled for second position, while MB Motorsport with Laser Tools Racing's Hill fell to third ahead of three-time champion Ash Sutton in fourth.
Turkington, himself, endured a roller-coaster qualifying run after the BMW 330e M Sport driver slipped off the circuit at Graham Hill corner on two separate occasions.
Toyota Gazoo Racing UK's Rory Butcher consolidated a magnificent recovery to qualify his Corolla in fifth position. Following numerous ventures off the circuit in Q1, Butcher was lucky to secure his spot in the shootout.
But the Toyota driver produced the goods when it mattered to recover back up to fifth by the end of Q1, before replicating the same result in the shootout. Butcher shares the third-row with an impressive effort from Team HARD's Bobby Thompson in sixth.
Defending champion Tom Ingram struggled somewhat in the tricky conditions, but still qualified his EXCELR8 prepared Hyundai in seventh position ahead of One Motorsport's Josh Cook in eighth.
Dan Lloyd and Ronan Pearson completed the remainder of the top-ten order in ninth and tenth.
Elsewhere, by virtue of no less than three stoppages, Q1 triggered a handful of penalties, led by the surprise exit of Team BMW's Adam Morgan, who could only muster a time good enough for 24th on the grid.
Morgan's session came to an abrupt end after the Team BMW driver spun on the exit of Paddock Hill corner and made contact with the stranded Cupra Leon of Nicolas Hamilton, who made the same error just moments earlier.
As Hamilton was waiting for an opportunity to leave the scene of his spin, Morgan's pirouetted straight into the front of the Team HARD Cupra. That triggered a red flag, with both drivers out of qualifying on the spot.
Hyundai driver Nick Halstead and One Motorsport's Will Powell both fell off the circuit either side of Hamilton and Morgan's stoppage, with both incidents triggering a red-flag.
