Knockhill BTCC: Jason Plato plans pitlane start after poor result

The two-time champion, who this weekend has 75kgs ballast in his car for qualifying and race one, ended up 22nd having struggled with the handling of his Team BMR Volkswagen CC.

Plato told AUTOSPORT the poor performance meant he would seriously consider repeating his pitlane start from Croft, where he had qualified 11th, and use the soft-compound Dunlops to try to set a fast laptime and get up the grid for race two.

"There's no way I'll be starting on the grid," he said. "What's the point? You can't get a good laptime in the pack.

"Twenty-second? No way. If I do, I'll start and cruise around for the first couple of laps."

Plato had finished eighth in oractice two, but suspected a broken damper contributed to his issues in qualifying, where he felt he should have matched team-mate Colin Turkington, who will start race one ninth.

"We don't know what's happened," he said after the session.

"It was totally different. I had masses of understeer from the beginning, and bits of road felt bumpy where they didn't before.

"We put it in qualifying trim and maybe that kind of tipped it over the edge, but I doubt it.

"We're three tenths off what we could have done, so something has happened."