Plato secures pole at Brands Hatch
Jason Plato secured his first pole position of 2010 in qualifying for the final British Touring Car Championship round of the season at Brands Hatch
The championship leader produced a stunning lap of 48.647s despite carrying the maximum 45kg of success ballast to take pole and the bonus point that comes with it.
His closest rival for the title, Matt Neal, recovered from his poor practice pace to set the second quickest time in his Honda, 0.133s adrift of Plato.
Fellow title contender Gordon Shedden and Alex MacDowall made it a Honda-Chevrolet second row with Tom Chilton the best of the Arena Fords in fifth.
Mat Jackson (Motorbase BMW) and James Nash were next up while Nash's Triple 8 Vauxhall team-mate Sam Tordoff was a hugely impressive eighth ahead of his BTCC debut.
Paul O'Neill kept up his record of qualifying in the top 10 at every round this year. His Tech-Speed Honda was ninth, one place ahead of Tom Onslow-Cole, the last of the four title contenders, who was a disappointing 10th.
The session was red-flagged twice; firstly when Lea Wood's Wood Honda went off at Clearways and then 10 minutes later when John George (Tech-Speed Honda) and MacDowall both stopped at the same corner.
Andy Neate was another to go off, the WSR BMW driver ploughing through the gravel and into the tyre barriers at Paddock with three minutes to go. His accident was covered by stationary yellow flags.
Pos Driver Car Time Gap 1. Jason Plato Chevrolet 48.647s 2. Matt Neal Honda 48.780s + 0.133s 3. Gordon Shedden Honda 48.791s + 0.144s 4. Alex MacDowall Chevrolet 48.830s + 0.183s 5. Tom Chilton Ford 48.871s + 0.224s 6. Mat Jackson BMW 48.885s + 0.238s 7. James Nash Vauxhall 48.902s + 0.255s 8. Sam Tordoff Vauxhall 48.947s + 0.300s 9. Paul O'Neill Honda 49.100s + 0.453s 10. Tom Onslow-Cole Ford 49.110s + 0.463s 11. Andrew Jordan Vauxhall 49.171s + 0.524s 12. Tom Boardman SEAT 49.173s + 0.526s 13. Rob Collard BMW 49.190s + 0.543s 14. Steven Kane BMW 49.249s + 0.602s 15. Andy Neate BMW 49.540s + 0.893s 16. Arthur Forster BMW 49.788s + 1.141s 17. Lea Wood Honda 49.841s + 1.194s 18. Martin Depper BMW 49.960s + 1.313s 19. Martin Johnson Vauxhall 50.010s + 1.363s 20. John George Honda 50.116s + 1.469s 21. Shaun Hollamby Volkswagen 50.129s + 1.482s 22. Ben Collins BMW no time
Read our in-depth preview ahead of the BTCC finale at Brands Hatch
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments