ROKiT MB Motorsport's Jake Hill will start the opening round of the 2022 British Touring Car Championship from the head of the field a🤪fter securing his first ever pole position in the series at Donington Park.

With the꧟ BMWs looking in fine form, Hill was the man to beat from the very word go after the ROKiT backed driver dipped below Gordon Shedden's pole position lap record within the opening sequence 🍌of runs.

At one point, the BMWs locked out the top-five order prior to the session's one and only red flag after Dan Cammish's NAPA Racing Ford Focus ST caught fire in dramatic🦩 fashion on the run up to Mcleans cꩲorner.

Cammish quickly evacuated himself from the flame-stricken Focus, but his participaဣtion for the rest of weekend✨ remains in question while Motorbase assess the damage to the car.

From the point of the session restarting, four-time champion Colin Turkington had wrestled the top-spot away from Hill, before defending champion Ash Sutton announced his candidacy ꦆfor pole after he produced a 1min 8.641s lap just after the halfway point of the session.

However, Hil൩l responded in devastating fas🌟hion by setting yet another lap record with a 1min 8.418s effort.

Turkington, Sutton and, later on, Tom Ingram came nail bitingly c🐬lose to the benchmark, but Hill's lap eventually clun🉐g onto the top-spot by a mere 0.018s ahead of BMW stablemate Turkington.

Sutton will kick-off his title defence from third on the grid along𒁏side Ingram's Hyundai i30N in fourth, while George Gamble produced a sensational performance on his BTCC qualifying debut to secure a place on the third row in fifth.

Gord✱on Shedden was the top Honda in sixth position for Team Dynamics, just 0.2s off pole position ahead of BMW duo Stephen Jelley and Adam Morgan in seventh and eighth.

The sister Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R of Dan Rowbottom ended qඣualifying in ninth ahead of a strong effort from two-time Jason Plato in tenth position on his first weekend with BTC Racing Honda outfit.