Turkington out to extend title lead from 18th

Colin Turkington says he's not going to alter his approach in the British Touring Car Championship title fight as the Team BMW driver aims to extend his points lead ahead of Tom Ingram at Silverstone.

The former two-time champion will start the opening race directly ahead of his chief rival Ingram in 18th after the main title contenders all struggled to carry the success ballast in qualifying.

Just 0.007s was all that could separate the Turkington's BMW 125i M Sport and Ingram's Speedworks Motorsport prepared Toyota Avensis in qualifying.

Crucially, Turkington enjoys a healthy 43-point lead over the Toyota driver, while reigning champion Ashley Sutton sits a further eight-points back in third.

"We knew it was going to be difficult around here," Turkington told Crash.net. "With three long straights, there’s very little you can do to negate the effect of the weight.

"You’ve got a straight-line speed deficit the whole way around the track. Somewhere like Knockhill or Rockingham, there’s a lot more corners so there’s a lot more opportunities to make the time up.

"I’d prefer to be higher up the grid, but when you see where the other guys are, then I think we are we should be. Unfortunately the success ballast works too well and does what it’s supposed to do!"

Instead of setting his focus on damage limitation from 18th, Turkington is looking to apply further pressure on his rivals by extending his advantage as the title fight nears it's crescendo.

"I’ve just got to keep focussed on trying to score points and keeping a focus on my own performance. Everyone is on their own strategy and agenda today. I just want to try and keep progressing in each race as we normally do," Turkington continued.

"Hopefully we can have a faster than [Ingram] and move forward. I’m here to try and extend the points lead. I don’t want to be thinking about not giving too much away.

"The strategy is just the same as normal."