BTCC: Butcher beats Hill to race one Silverstone pole position
Toyota Gazoo Racing UK's Rory Butcher will start Sunday's opening British Touring Car Championship race from pole position after setting the fastest time in qualifying at the penultimate Silverstone round.
Butcher secured pole for the second year in-a-row at Silverstone after producing a 57.374s lap around the National configuration of the Grand Prix venue.
The Toyota Corolla driver's effort was good enough to beat BMW's Jake Hill by just 0.037s.
In typical Silverstone fashion, just 0.3s covered the top-ten order, with championship leader Colin Turkington bringing up the rear of the top-ten aboard his Team BMW 3 Series challenger.
Having the set the fastest time during the earlier FP2 session, Adam Morgan converted his promising pace with a top-three starting slot for Sunday's opening race with the third fastest time.
Like Hill in second, Hyundai driver Tom Ingram looks poised to make inroads on Turkington's slender points lead after setting the fourth fastest time ahead of NAPA Racing UK's Dan Cammish in fifth.
Ricky Collard followed up his team mate Butcher's pole position heroics by setting the sixth fastest time aboard his Toyota Corolla, marginally ahead of defending champion Ash Sutton in seventh position.
With the Hondas seemingly struggling to make an impression around Silverstone, three-time champion Gordon Shedden was the fastest Civic Type-R runner in eighth, while Dan Lloyd and Colin Turkington completed the top-ten grid order.
