Giovanardi claims pole at Thruxton

The Vauxhall driver, who suffered major damage to his Vectra in a collision with Stephen Jelley in practice, produced a lap of 1m17.985s mid-way through the session to take what is only his second BTCC pole, the first having come at the same circuit two years ago.

All the more remarkable about the double champion's time is that it came on his only flying lap of the entire session.

Championship leader Matt Neal made it an all-Vauxhall front row, just as it had been at Brands Hatch three weeks ago. Neal, who was carrying 45kg of success weight compared to Giovanardi's ballast-free car, was 0.320 seconds slower.

Jason Plato languished down at the tail end of the top 10 for most of the session, but the former champion pushed hard in the final minute to move up to third spot on the grid in his RML-run Chevrolet, demoting Andrew Jordan to fourth, which was still a career-best for the third Vauxhall driver.

Colin Turkington was fifth quickest in the best of the WSR BMWs, while the star of qualifying was Paul O'Neill, who put his Tech-Speed Honda Integra a magnificent sixth on his return to the BTCC after over a year away.

Adam Jones's Clyde Valley Racing SEAT was seventh, one spot ahead of the Team Dynamics Honda of James Thompson. Dan Eaves, in the second Clyde Valley SEAT, and Mat Jackson's RML Chevrolet completed the top 10.

Motorbase Performance, which scored its maiden BTCC win at Brands Hatch, could only manage 11th and 12th places for Jonathan Adam and Rob Collard. Nick Leason failed to take part in the session due to technical issues with his Team AFM BMW.

Pos Driver                  Car            Time          Gap
 1. Fabrizio Giovanardi     Vauxhall       1m17.985s
 2. Matt Neal               Vauxhall       1m18.305s  +0.320
 3. Jason Plato             Chevrolet      1m18.326s  +0.341
 4. Andrew Jordan           Vauxhall       1m18.354s  +0.369
 5. Colin Turkington        BMW            1m18.407s  +0.422
 6. Paul O'Neill            Honda          1m18.708s  +0.723
 7. Adam Jones              SEAT           1m18.830s  +0.845
 8. James Thompson          Honda          1m18.916s  +0.931
 9. Dan Eaves               SEAT           1m18.952s  +0.967
10. Mat Jackson             Chevrolet      1m19.018s  +1.033
11. Jonathan Adam           BMW            1m19.091s  +1.106
12. Rob Collard             BMW            1m19.386s  +1.401
13. Harry Vaulkhard         Chevrolet      1m19.447s  +1.462
14. Stephen Jelley          BMW            1m19.528s  +1.543
15. Martyn Bell             Honda          1m20.136s  +2.151
16. David Pinkney           Honda          1m20.174s  +2.189
17. John George             Honda          1m20.486s  +2.501
18. Martin Johnson          Vauxhall       1m20.865s  +2.880
19. Tom Chilton             Ford           1m21.110s  +3.125
20. Liam McMillan           SEAT           1m21.141s  +3.156
21. Alan Morrison           Ford           1m23.461s  +5.476