Turkington extends points lead after 'positive' Snetterton

Team BMW's Colin Turkington kicked off the second half of the 2019 British Touring Car Championship in superb style after extending his championship lead ahead of team mate Andrew Jordan at Snetterton.

The defending champion took his fifth win of the season in race two to help extend his BTCC lead to 36-points over West Surrey Racing team mate Jordan with four race weekends to go.

Having gained a position from his fifth place qualifying effort to finish fourth on the medium tyre in race one, Turkington made good use of the soft tyre during the following encounter to hand WSR a landmark tenth victory of the season so far.

Ten race victories marks the highest number of wins West Surrey Racing have picked up in any BTCC season during the BMW outfit's illustrious tenure in the series.

"A really positive weekend," Turkington told Crash.net. "I wasn’t coming into the weekend expecting to win but the car was really good on the softs.

"I think we played our strategy right. I started on the medium and once we got the weight out, the combination of the soft tyre, we had the pace to win.

"I think we maximised the weekend. Qualifying was the key once again. Getting that good track position and being able to stay there.

"It’s always tough when you’re on a lot weight. Things are changing and tyres are but we coped really well and I’m pleased with the outcome."

Following on from his race two success, Turkington labelled the reverse grid race 'probably the toughest race of the year so far' as the BMW 330i M Sport battled with the hard compound tyre to pick up vital points in tenth.

"It was probably the toughest race of the year so far," the BMW star continued.

"It was just the hard tyre, plus the weight is a double whammy. It’s not easy to drive, especially with guys coming through on the soft tyre.

"You can’t keep them back. You’ve just got to try and be clever. That’s race three. You’ve got to pick up the pieces."