Turkington captures BTCC lead after double Oulton podium

Team BMW's Colin Turkington has captured the points lead of the 2018 British Touring Car Championship for the first time this season after securing a double podium at Oulton Park.

The two-time champion had qualified down in ninth ahead of the opening encounter but managed to open his 2018 victory account with a superb charge from fifth to first in the following second race.

Turkington was then part of a magnificent BMW 1-2-3 podium lock-out in third during the reverse grid race, which has strengthened his new-found championship lead to 12-points ahead of Adam Morgan and Jack Goff.

"It’s always really special to get on the top-step and get a win," Turkington told Crash.net. "I’ve been trying to score points and thankfully we’ve come to Oulton Park and the car has been really good.

"All three BMWs have been fast so it’s important to capitalise on that. The points haul I’ve had this weekend hasn’t really sunk in I suppose.

"Even after qualifying in P9, I wasn’t confident I would win a race or get on the podium. We just kept working hard. The others maybe had a bit of bad luck this weekend, where we haven’t. It was good capitalise on that."

Having qualified in ninth, Turkington was able to capitalise from the running the option tyre in the opening race to move himself further into contention with a fifth place finish.

Knowing where his WSR prepared BMW 125i M Sport was particularly strong, Turkington sliced his way through the top-ten order with a series of clinical manoeuvres at Lodge corner throughout the day.

"Our strategy was good. In race one on the soft tyre I could improve my start position for race two. That was the key thing," Turkington continued.

"It’s important to focus on the corners that I was strong on, particularly in Lodge. Into the corner and out of the corner, I seemed to have an ace up my sleeve there over the others.

"I focused on where the car would be strong. In the high speed, maybe we weren’t as good as the others, but I could make ground.

"With full ballast in race three, that was even more important to focus on the strengths of the car and not give too much away where we weren’t as strong."