Colin Turkington on title fight: “It’s far from over”

West Surrey Racing’s Colin Turkington was resilient despite his championship hopes being delivered a severe blow in qualifying at Brands Hatch, after the two-time champion qualified down in 17th after an engine misfire, while championship leader Ash Sutton qualified in third in his Subaru.

Turkington spent half the session in the pits as the team worked frantically to resolve his technical issue, with the Northern Irishman able to set a few laps at the end of qualifying to secure 17th on the grid.

“Obviously it was a very difficult session,” said Turkington. “First with Rob (Collard) unfortunately not making it out, and then I had this issue from the first lap. We cured the problem, but it left me with very little opportunity to set a representative lap, but the positive is I’m 17th instead of 32nd.

“We just have to reset. The points are dished out tomorrow, not today. It’s always difficult to make progress through the pack, but we’ll keep trying. It’s far from over.”