All SEAT front row at Snetterton

Plato, who set the pace in practice, topped qualifying for the first time since 2006 in a time of 1:11.145, which smashed James Thompson's four-year-old pole record by four tenths of a second.

He was just 0.122 seconds clear of teammate Turner, though, as both exploited the power of the turbodiesel engines in their Leon TDIs at a circuit that rewards cars with good top-end speed.

Gordon Shedden headed the chase of the SEATs, but was almost half a second adrift in his Team Halfords Honda, while champion Fabrizio Giovanardi was fourth quickest.

Giovanardi's second-row position came in spite of his car grinding to a halt at the Russell chicane midway through the session and bringing out the red flags.

Shedden's teammate Tom Chilton was fifth with the Vauxhall of Tom Onslow-Cole next up, despite his car bellowing out smoke just prior to the red flags.

The BMW of Team RAC driver Colin Turkington was next up, closely followed by Steven Kane's Motorbase-run version. Adam Jones' Team Air-Cool SEAT and Stephen Jelley's Team RAC BMW completed the top ten.

Matt Neal, second in the championship, was only 11th for Vauxhall, while another expected front-runner Mat Jackson was 13th for BMW Dealer UK.

Harry Vaulkhard only took to the track with ten minutes left after the Robertshaw Racing crew cured a suspected crank sensor problem on his Chevrolet Lacetti. He qualified 17th, while Andrew Jordan managed 14th after encountering a gearbox problem that left the Eurotech-John Guest Honda driver in the garage for the first 20 minutes of the session too.

Pos Driver                 Car          Time         Gap
 1. Jason Plato            SEAT         1:11.145
 2. Darren Turner          SEAT         1:11.267  +0.122
 3. Gordon Shedden         Honda        1:11.636  +0.491
 4. Fabrizio Giovanardi    Vauxhall     1:11.687  +0.542
 5. Tom Chilton            Honda        1:11.714  +0.569
 6. Tom Onslow-Cole        Vauxhall     1:11.788  +0.643
 7. Colin Turkington       BMW          1:12.031  +0.886
 8. Steven Kane            BMW          1:12.235  +1.090
 9. Adam Jones             SEAT         1:12.239  +1.094
10. Stephen Jelley         BMW          1:12.360  +1.215
11. Matt Neal              Vauxhall     1:12.381  +1.236
12. Mike Jordan            Honda        1:12.433  +1.288
13. Mat Jackson            BMW          1:12.444  +1.299
14. Andrew Jordan          Honda        1:12.545  +1.400
15. Rob Collard            BMW          1:12.645  +1.500
16. John George            Honda        1:12.929  +1.784
17. Harry Vaulkhard        Chevrolet    1:13.345  +2.200
18. Jason Hughes           Honda        1:13.577  +2.432
19. Michael Doyle          Honda        1:13.664  +2.519
20. Martyn Bell            Vauxhall     1:13.904  +2.759
21. Erkut Kizilirmak       Vauxhall     1:14.033  +2.888
22. Alan Taylor            Honda        1:14.627  +3.482