BTCC

Tordoff Given Verbal Warning For Collard Qualifying Clash

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Sam Tordoff admitted that he ‘mis-timed’ a move that lead to a collision with West Surrey Racing team-mate Rob Collard in qualifying for the penultimate Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship meeting at Silverstone.

The championship leader and his BMW team-mate made contact at Luffield in the early stages of the 30-minute qualifying session at Silverstone’s national circuit, both left pointing the wrong way as a result.

Fellow championship contender Collard recovered from the gravel trap but could only manage 24th on the grid, left disappointed by events from Saturday.

Photo: BTCC Media

Photo: BTCC Media

“We haven’t really got to the bottom of it yet, so it’s difficult to say”, a despondent Collard told The Checkered Flag afterwards on the collision.

“It’s disappointing to be hit by your team-mate in qualifying. It was a big knock and it spun me around into the gravel. I was fortunate to get out of there, but the car was not great from a chassis point of view then.”

Tordoff – leading the series by five points – said he was moving aside for fellow WSR driver, Jack Goff, admitting to TCF: “I just mis-timed it trying to do the right thing. I was just trying to get out of the way of Jack and didn’t know that Rob was there.”

The championship leader was slapped with a verbal warning for his part in the incident, but will still start from 16th on the grid for the opening race on Sunday.

Both Tordoff and Collard are no stranger to a charge through the field in 2016, Tordoff most recently coming from 27th to 10th before winning the second encounter at Rockingham.

Collard however feels that it will be a tougher task at the 1.64-mile Silverstone circuit, adding: “People think we’re sandbagging, but we’re absolutely driving the wheels off it.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to [overtake] as much tomorrow. We can usually make it up when we’ve got short straights and more corners, but here we won’t have that ability, so it could be hard to overtake.”

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