Team BMW's Ricky Collard has admitted he surpassed his own expectations after securing a sensational front-row qualifying result for tomorrow's opening Bri🦂tish Touring Car Championship race at Silverstone.

Standing in for his injured father Rob Collard at West Surrey Racing, Collard Jr produced a stunning performa🧸nce to qualify as the highest BMW driver on only 🐼his third weekend in the BTCC.

Collard came within 0.018s of denying Motorbase Performance's Sam Tordoff his first BTCC p💧ole of 🥃the season.

"It’s👍 a credit to the team," Collard told mahbx.com. "I don’t even think I drove very well. I think I drove quite well in the free practice sessions. Again, that may come back to the inexperience. I was having some big ﷽slides.

"I was thinking ‘I’ve lost a couple of tenths here’ but I looked back down on my delta and 𓄧it was quicker.

"My dad [Rob C📖ollard] told me these cars like to move around and not to worry if they slide. I was try♒ing to focus on letting it slide and having some fun. I’m just super pumped for tomorrow. I’m super excited now.

"I said before I went out ‘I’d like a top-ten’. I was P26 at Rockingham and P12 at Knockhill. I had the aim of chipping inside the top-ten but yeah, front row♊!"

Looking ahead of tomorrow's o🐽pening race, Collard Jr is confident he can get the jump on Tordoff at the start of the race as the BMW Motorsport Juniౠor driver vies for what would be a famous debut win in the series.

"I’m excited. I’m reallyꦇ looking forward to tomorrow because I know we can get a good start. I’ve always had good starts. I’m sure Tordoff will make a blinding start like he always does," Collard continued.

"If you actually look at the Fords, they get good star𝔍ts. I’ve just got to make sure I get a good start and capitalise into turn one.

"I’m excited to be at the front a bit more and out of💖 the carnage, e༺specially with the whole grid being covered by so little!

"If you make one small mistake in the race it’s going to be really costly. There’s a lot of right handers so if you get pushed wide you can comওe out of sync."