Jake Hill Secures Pole Position at Brands Hatch
Reigning British Touring Car champion Jake Hill bounced back from a disappointing opening round to secure pole position for the second round at Brands Hatch. The West Surrey Racing-run BMWs were off the pace at Donington Park on the first race weekend since the removal of hybrid, which reduced car weights by 55kg.
According to Autosport, Hill’s BMWs have been back on the pace after a period of intense development, and he beat rookie team-mate Charles Rainford to his first BTCC pole position on his home track by a mere 0.021 seconds. "I just threw the world at it," said Hill. "I thought it might be on the cards when we topped our group in Q1, so I thought, ‘Let’s have a go.’"
Hill admitted that his Donington form, which left him sixth in the championship, allowed him 11 seconds per lap of TOCA Turbo Boost, while he also cited the resurfacing of the second half of the lap on the Brands Indy circuit, which gave the BMWs "incredible traction now off the last corner".
Charles Rainford, who is competing in only his second BTCC race weekend, was delighted to be on the front row. "I’m thrilled," he said. Rainford had headed Q2 by 0.031s from Tom Ingram, but couldn’t quite match Hill when it mattered in the Quick Six shootout.
The BTCC new boy was on the full 15s of TTB, as was third-fastest Adam Morgan, who ended up just 0.026s off Hill’s pole time in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback. Morgan’s team-mate Ingram was next, despite enjoying just 3s per lap of TTB. However, he couldn’t access that when it mattered, as he pressed the button too early out of Clearways and "locked myself out of boost by being an idiot".
Ingram had looked in trouble in Q1, but got back out with just three minutes remaining and immediately sprang back to the top of the times to move through comfortably. Dan Cammish was the best of the Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST brigade to take fifth on the grid, but only got through to Q3 at the last knockings of Q2 when he improved to knock out team-mate Sam Osborne.
The Quick Six was rounded out by Mikey Doble and his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra, continuing the good progress from Donington. Osborne ended up with a career-best seventh on the grid, followed by Dan Lloyd’s Restart Racing Hyundai, Daryl de Leon (WSR BMW) and Ronan Pearson (Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla).
One of the highest-profile scalps from Q1 was four-time title winner and early 2025 championship leader Ash Sutton, who had access to just one second per lap of TTB on his Alliance Ford and took seventh place on his group, missing the cut by 0.054s. "We knew it was going to be tough," explained Sutton. "Coming here with one second of deployment really hurt us. We knew what we were dealt, and that was the outcome."
The starting grid for the first race at Brands Hatch is as follows:
Autosport has learned that the racing community is eagerly anticipating the start of the BTCC at Brands Hatch, with many drivers looking to make their mark on the competition.
Source: Autosport
