Colin Turkington took pole for VX Racing today at Knockhill in a tense, exciting qualifying session, which saw the leader board change numerous times during the session. Muller was set to join his team mate on the front row with the second fastest time as the session drew to a close, but a last minute fast lap by Gareth Howell pushed the Frenchman down to third place. Gavin Smith set ninth fastest time to join his team mates in the top ten as the session concluded.

Turkington in the new Astra VX Racing Astra Sport Hatch was on the pace from the start, heading the timesheets in the first practice session and fifth fastest in the second. Muller, carrying 36 kilos of ballast, was moving up and down in the top ten during the session, one minute second, the next seventh, spurring him on to push for the fastest lap. Smith was lapping consistently around tenth place and was satisfied to finish ninth fastest.

Turkington, feeling at home in Scotland, after spending the last three years at Stirling University, was justifiably encouraged with his performance, saying: “I’m really pleased after that, I knew the car was great from the first free practice. We made a few improvements in the second practice session and as far as qualifying, it was a tense situation trying to get a lap hooked up, but I’m delighted to get pole again. As for tomorrow, well, we’ve got the quickest car, but I don’t know what the conditions will be like, we’re just going to have to make the best assessment we can and set the car up as well as we can. The car suits tracks like this and the easier the car is to drive, the easier it is for me.”

Muller didn’t expect to be in the top three carrying so much ballast, but enjoyed the competitiveness of the session, saying, “It was an exciting qualifying session, very tough, with the time differences very small within the top ten. For example at one stage I was P2, then the next lap P7, it’s not easy mentally when it’s like that. I probably can’t win the first race from third on the grid. It’s possible to do one lap carrying this amount of weight and it’s hard, but a whole race with the weight is even worse. I’ll do my best of course, but the target for me is beating the championship contenders. If it rains I have more chance to win, as the weight doesn’t penalise you so much.”

Smith summed up his day, commenting, “Qualifying was much better for me, especially as we hadn’t managed to do much in the practice sessions. We didn’t get a good run of laps in either practice session, so it was a bit frustrating. We made a few changes to the car for this afternoon and even on my quickest lap I locked up, so lost a few tenths which could have put me around fifth or sixth. Tomorrow we’ll see what we can do; I’d like to make up a few places and aim to finish in the top five. I’d be happy with that.”

The 2005 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship is the first year of competition for the VX Racing Astra Sport Hatch. This year VX Racing will be aiming to repeat the triple-title winning success of the past four years.