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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

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