Jelley lands maiden BTCC pole

Jelley, in his first year of tin-top racing, had been lying eighth on the timesheet before setting a blistering 49.297 in his BMW with six minutes of the session remaining to give Team RAC their first pole of the season.

Mat Jackson had held the top spot prior to Jelley's sensational effort and the BMW Dealer Team UK driver hung on to a front-row starting spot, just 0.062 adrift.

Darren Turner and former champion Matt Neal filled the second row for SEAT and Vauxhall respectively, with Gordon Shedden's Team Halfords Honda and Colin Turkington's Team RAC BMW next up.

On a track that seemed to suit the rear-wheel drive BMWs better than any other in the championship, Rob Collard took his best grid spot of the season for Motorbase in seventh while Adam Jones's Team Air-Cool SEAT and Steven Kane followed - the latter making it two Motorbase cars in the top ten for the first time in the BTCC.

Title contenders Jason Plato and Fabrizio Giovanardi qualified 10th and 11th and the Italian will be crowned champion in the first of Sunday's races if they finish there.

Chris Stockton and Mike Jordan both sat out the session, Stockton because of a fuel pressure problem and Jordan due to a broken differential.

After his practice problems, Erkut Kizilirmak did likewise while the Arkas Racing squad recovered his Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch from their headquarters, and Harry Vaulkhard was forced to spend the second half of the session in the pits after his Chevrolet Lacetti twice failed ride-height tests.

Pos Driver                Car          Time       Gap  
 1. Stephen Jelley        BMW          49.297
 2. Mat Jackson           BMW          49.359  +0.062
 3. Darren Turner         SEAT         49.401  +0.104
 4. Matt Neal             Vauxhall     49.424  +0.127
 5. Gordon Shedden        Honda        49.427  +0.130
 6. Colin Turkington      BMW          49.465  +0.168
 7. Rob Collard           BMW          49.498  +0.201
 8. Adam Jones            SEAT         49.504  +0.207
 9. Steven Kane           BMW          49.570  +0.273
10. Jason Plato           SEAT         49.572  +0.275
11. Fabrizio Giovanardi   Vauxhall     49.578  +0.281
12. Tom Onslow-Cole       Vauxhall     49.606  +0.309
13. Tom Chilton           Honda        49.642  +0.345
14. Andrew Jordan         Honda        49.755  +0.458
15. Jason Hughes          Honda        50.002  +0.705
16. Michael Doyle         Honda        50.087  +0.790
17. John George           Honda        50.195  +0.898
18. Martyn Bell           Vauxhall     50.626  +1.329
19. Alan Taylor           Honda        50.955  +1.658
20. Mike Jordan           Honda        no time
21. Chris Stockton        SEAT         no time
22. Harry Vaulkhard       Chevrolet    no time
23. Erkut Kizilirmak      Vauxhall     no time