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MacDowall earns historic BTCC pole

Alex MacDowall became the youngest polesitter in British Touring Car Championship history as he went quickest in a wet qualifying session at Snetterton

In taking pole, the teenager also headed a Chevrolet one-two, making it the first time a Cruze has appeared on the front row in the BTCC.

With rain beginning to fall as the session began, tyre choice looked like it would determine the grid order. However, with nobody able to get a decent amount of heat into their tyres early on, and the rain getting heavier as the session progressed, most of the quick times came during the middle of the session when everyone was on full wets.

Jason Plato, who topped dry practice, seemed likely to claim pole for himself with a lap of 1m19.426s at the halfway point of the session. But MacDowall surprised his more senior team-mate by turning in a 1m19.332s less than a minute later. His time, which was unbeaten, gave him pole by 0.094 seconds and made him the youngest polesitter in championship history at 19 years, 197 days old.

Behind them Tom Chilton put his Arena Ford third on the grid with Mat Jackson (Motorbase BMW) and Gordon Shedden next up. The Honda driver spun on his final lap exiting the Esses, but was able to resume the circuit.

Andrew Jordan (Eurotech Vauxhall) qualified sixth, just ahead of championship leader Matt Neal, who was carrying 45kg of success ballast in his Honda.

Paul O'Neill (Tech-Speed Honda), James Nash (Triple 8 Vauxhall) and Tom Boardman (Special Tuning UK SEAT) completed the top 10 - the latter taking the best BTCC qualifying spot of his career.

Tom Onslow-Cole had the pace to qualify in the top six, but his Arena Ford failed two separate ride-height tests, twice having his times deleted from the session. With the final failure coming with only 40 seconds remaining, he did not have enough time to set a qualifying mark and will start last on the grid for Sunday's opening race.

Pos  Driver           Car         Time       Gap
 1.  Alex MacDowall   Chevrolet   1m19.332s
 2.  Jason Plato      Chevrolet   1m19.426s  + 0.094s
 3.  Tom Chilton      Ford        1m19.675s  + 0.343s
 4.  Mat Jackson      BMW         1m20.094s  + 0.762s
 5.  Gordon Shedden   Honda       1m20.206s  + 0.874s
 6.  Andrew Jordan    Vauxhall    1m20.487s  + 1.155s
 7.  Matt Neal        Honda       1m20.613s  + 1.281s
 8.  Paul O'Neill     Honda       1m20.688s  + 1.356s
 9.  James Nash       Vauxhall    1m20.695s  + 1.363s
10.  Tom Boardman     SEAT        1m20.752s  + 1.420s
11.  Steven Kane      BMW         1m20.827s  + 1.495s
12.  Rob Collard      BMW         1m21.303s  + 1.971s
13.  Lea Wood         Honda       1m21.350s  + 2.018s
14.  David Pinkney    Vauxhall    1m22.278s  + 2.946s
15.  Andy Neate       BMW         1m22.357s  + 3.025s
16.  John George      Honda       1m22.358s  + 3.026s
17.  Shaun Hollamby   Volkswagen  1m22.963s  + 3.631s
18.  Martin Depper    BMW         1m23.598s  + 4.266s
19.  Arthur Forster   BMW         1m23.656s  + 4.324s
20.  Martin Johnson   Vauxhall    1m40.092s  + 20.760s
21.  Tom Onslow-Cole  Ford

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