Fourth season pole for Turkington

"I'm absolutely delighted," he said. "We've done a great job, the car was quick out of the box, I hardly had to work at it. It's all credit to the engineers."

The Team RAC driver, in a BMW 320si, set a fastest time just 0.002 seconds quicker than SEAT's Darren Turner.

Lining up behind them on the grid will be championship leader Jason Plato and VX Racing's Tom Chilton.

Fabrizio Giovanardi qualified in fifth place, while reigning champion Matt Neal will start from ninth on the grid.

Turkington had taken pole at Brands Hatch earlier in the season, at the first round, when the team had only just received its cars from BMW.

"For sure we did excel here at the first meeting," said Turkington, "but I think it was more will power! We have made real progress since then."

The Northern Irishman will be hoping for better luck this weekend after being disqualified from a win during the last meeting, at Snetterton, after his car was found to be underweight.

"It was a very hard weekend," he said, "to win the race and spray the champagne, then to be disqualified. It was hard to take.

"But it's a new day, a new race weekend, and I can focus on tomorrow."

Pos  Driver            Make        Time
 1.  Colin Turkington  BMW         49.45
 2.  Darren Turner     SEAT        49.45 + 0.00
 3.  Jason Plato       SEAT        49.63 + 0.18
 4.  Tom Chilton       Vauxhall    49.68 + 0.24
 5.  F.Giovanardi      Vauxhall    49.71 + 0.26
 6.  Mat Jackson       BMW         49.74 + 0.29
 7.  Gordon Shedden    Honda       49.81 + 0.36
 8.  Tom Onslow-Cole   BMW         49.82 + 0.37
 9.  Matt Neal         Honda       49.85 + 0.40
10.  Mike Jordan       Honda       49.86 + 0.41
11.  Adam Jones        SEAT        50.01 + 0.56
12.  Gavin Smith       SEAT        50.02 + 0.57
13.  Tom Ferrier       SEAT        50.17 + 0.72
14.  Matt Allison      SEAT        50.21 + 0.76
15.  Jason Hughes      MG          50.26 + 0.82
16.  Eoin Murray       Alfa Romeo  50.27 + 0.82
17.  David Pinkney     Alfa Romeo  50.58 + 1.13
18.  John George       Honda       50.77 + 1.33
19.  Richard Marsh     Alfa Romeo  50.86 + 1.41
20.  Erkut Kizilirmak  Vauxhall    50.88 + 1.43
21.  Fiona Leggate     MG          51.18 + 1.73
22.  Martyn Bell       BMW         51.40 + 1.95
23.  Rick Kerry        BMW         52.03 + 2.59