BTCC Thruxton: Neal beats Turkington to pole with new record

The three-time champion was locked in a fierce fight with the WSR BMW 125i M Sport of Colin Turkington as the two chased top slot, setting lap times way below the previous qualifying benchmark which was set by Neal in 2017.

Neal's previous record was a 1m16.040s, but he beat that by four tenths of a second in the latter stages of the 30-minutes session with a 1m15.612s.

Despite returning to the track, Turkington was unable to oust his foe.

"I had to lay it all on the line for that lap," said Neal.

"I knew they [BTCC stewards] were going to be really hot on drivers who exceeded the track limits here, so I got a banker lap in first and then I really went for it on the second lap.

"It came off, and I will take it. I am certainly going to celebrate that one tonight."

Turkington was pleased with second in his rear-wheel-drive BMW, which also broke the 1m16s barrier with a 1m15.847s lap.

"That is the fastest that the BMW has ever been around here, so I am very happy with that lap," said Turkington.

"We have a set-up on the car that we won't have to detune too much to see us through a race distance too, so that gives me lots of optimism."

Dan Cammish put his Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R in third place, but his time was deleted as he was adjudged to have overstepped the track limits.

He returned to the track to set a better lap, which was enough to haul him back to fourth place behind the Eurotech Honda Civic of Brett Smith.

Cammish said: "It was important to get back out there and set an even better time, because sometimes it is hard to do that when you have had the knock of having a lap time disallowed.

"The car feels good and I will be going through Matt [Neal]'s data to try and get some tips before tomorrow."

Round two winner Senna Proctor will spearhead the third row of the grid in his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra.

Points leader Tom Ingram in the Speedworks Toyota Avensis had initially been due to start alongside Proctor after qualifying sixth, but will now start from 10th.

Ingram had been fourth early on before he first had a lap time removed for a track limits, and a later improvement was also scrubbed off for the same infringement.

His revised time of 1m16.407s was issued on Sunday morning.

The top 10 was completed by the Motorbase Performance Ford Focus pair of Sam Tordoff and Tom Chilton, Andrew Jordan (WSR BMW 125i M Sport) and the ninth place BTC Norlin Civic of Chris Smiley ahead of Ingram.

Reigning champion Ash Sutton struggled in his Team BMR car and will start in 18th place as the leading Subaru Levorg.

Qualifying result