Chilton on pole as Vauxhall dominate

Tom Chilton set pole with a lap of 1:17.269 in his Vectra, ahead of Fabrizio Giovanardi and the team's guest driver, former double BTCC champion Alain Menu.

"I absolutely love this place, it's awesome," said Chilton, who was celebrating his first pole position of the season. "Last time we were here I was leading but had a puncture. That won't happen this time - you cannot have bad luck in the same place twice."

Giovanardi's second place gives him the advantage over title rival Jason Plato, who qualified his SEAT Leon in fourth place. Plato has a nine-point advantage over Giovanardi in the drivers' title battle, which will be settled tomorrow, with a maximum of 51 points on offer.

Plato, who is racing with significant burns to his hands following an incident while filming for a television programme earlier this week, said: "I've got two Vauxhalls to get past and their mission is to not let that happen. I'll just have to do the best I can. I know our race pace is strong."

Giovanardi was satisfied with his qualifying but said "anything could happen" in the races tomorrow.

The Independent drivers' title will also be settled tomorrow, with four drivers in with a shout. Team RAC's Colin Turkington was the highest qualifier of those, setting the sixth-fastest time.

Pos  Driver               Car         Time
 1.  Tom Chilton          Vauxhall    1:17.269
 2.  Fabrizio Giovanardi  Vauxhall    1:17.439  + 0.170
 3.  Alain Menu           Vauxhall    1:17.611  + 0.342
 4.  Jason Plato          SEAT        1:17.856  + 0.587
 5.  Matt Neal            Honda       1:17.887  + 0.618
 6.  Colin Turkington     BMW         1:17.929  + 0.660
 7.  Darren Turner        SEAT        1:17.947  + 0.678
 8.  Mike Jordan          Honda       1:18.019  + 0.750
 9.  Gordon Shedden       Honda       1:18.067  + 0.798
10.  Matt Allison         SEAT        1:18.225  + 0.956
11.  Mat Jackson          BMW         1:18.366  + 1.097
12.  Tom Coronel          SEAT        1:18.482  + 1.213
13.  Tom Onslow-Cole      BMW         1:18.811  + 1.542
14.  Adam Jones           SEAT        1:18.825  + 1.556
15.  John George          Honda       1:19.089  + 1.820
16.  Eoin Murray          Alfa Romeo  1:19.108  + 1.839
17.  Rob Collard          SEAT        1:19.319  + 2.050
18.  Paul O'Neill         SEAT        1:19.412  + 2.143
19.  Erkut Kizilirmak     Vauxhall    1:19.953  + 2.684
20.  Jason Hughes         MG          1:20.288  + 3.019
21.  David Pinkney        Alfa Romeo  1:20.647  + 3.378
22.  Alan Taylor          Honda       1:22.375  + 5.106
23.  Martyn Bell          BMW         1:22.624  + 5.355
24.  Fiona Leggate        MG