Silverstone BTCC: Jason Plato dominates qualifying

Plato's works MG6 set a time of 58.838 seconds early in the session to move to the top of the timesheets. He went on to record eight times good enough for pole, the fastest of which was 58.717s.

"I can't go any quicker than 58.7s," said the double champion. "We're getting every last bit from the car.

"It's a potent weapon in the dry now."

The scrap for second was close. Dave Newsham took the spot early on, but could not improve on his 58.969s for the rest of the session.

That allowed the NGTC Ford Focus of Mat Jackson (Motorbase) to close in, and he ended up missing out beating the ES Racing Vauxhall Vectra's mark by just 0.001s.

That was until Newsham lost his lap for not respecting the track limits, dropping him to fifth and putting Jackson on the front row for Sunday's first race.

Frank Wrathall's Dynojet Toyota Avensis was the best of the cars not to break the 59s barrier, beating the WSR BMW of Rob Collard to third.

Dan Welch's Proton continued its fine Silverstone form by completing the top six, while Aron Smith made it two Motorbase Fords in the first seven with his S2000 Focus.

The NGTC Honda Civics continued to struggle. Reigning champion Matt Neal took 10th with 36kg of success ballast, more than half a second away from Plato.

Points leader Gordon Shedden suffered even more with his 45kg of ballast and had a couple of moments on his way to 19th, nearly a second away from pole.

BTCC returnee Chris Stockton was 21st in the field of 24, driving Thorney Motorsport's Vauxhall Insignia.

Pos  Driver           Team/Car           Time       Gap
 1.  Jason Plato      MG                 58.717s
 2.  Mat Jackson      Motorbase Ford     58.970s    + 0.253s
 3.  Frank Wrathall   Dynojet Toyota     59.059s    + 0.342s
 4.  Rob Collard      WSR BMW            59.121s    + 0.404s
 5.  Dave Newsham     ES Vauxhall        59.132s    + 0.415s
 6.  Daniel Welch     Welch Proton       59.155s    + 0.438s
 7.  Aron Smith       Motorbase Ford     59.225s    + 0.508s
 8.  Tom Onslow-Cole  WSR BMW            59.267s    + 0.550s
 9.  Adam Morgan      Speedworks Toyota  59.267s    + 0.550s
10.  Matt Neal        Honda              59.283s    + 0.566s
11.  Andrew Jordan    Eurotech Honda     59.306s    + 0.589s
12.  Andy Neate       MG                 59.326s    + 0.609s
13.  Nick Foster      WSR BMW            59.350s    + 0.633s
14.  Chris James      ES Vauxhall        59.455s    + 0.738s
15.  Howard Fuller    Gilham Honda       59.489s    + 0.772s
16.  Liam Griffin     Motorbase Ford     59.527s    + 0.810s
17.  Rob Austin       Austin Audi        59.609s    + 0.892s
18.  Lea Wood         Wood Vauxhall      59.629s    + 0.912s
19.  Gordon Shedden   Honda              59.682s    + 0.965s
20.  Jeff Smith       Eurotech Honda     59.733s    + 1.016s
21.  Chris Stockton   Thorney Vauxhall   59.931s    + 1.214s
22.  Will Bratt       Austin Audi        1m00.044s  + 1.327s
23.  Tony Hughes      Speedworks Toyota  1m00.422s  + 1.705s
24.  Ollie Jackson    AmD Volkswagen     1m00.856s  + 2.139s