Plato takes hard-fought pole

Plato, currently enjoying a superb run of form, pipped SEAT Sport UK teammate Darren Turner by just 0.007 seconds despite carrying 18kg more success ballast by dint of his third place in the championship.

Turner had looked set to have secured his first BTCC pole position with two minutes of the half-hour qualifying session to run, only for Plato to put in his best time of 49.368 seconds to deny him.

"Our car has been working fantastically the last few meetings," said Plato, who has now taken three poles in a row.

"In terms of our pace we've learned some things about the car four races ago and now that's my hat-trick of poles. It's good for Darren to be up there as well.

"It's unfortunate we've had so much bad luck this year, but that's just the way it goes. We've done the best job we've done and we're both on the front row."

"I'm really disappointed to get pipped at the end there, but Jason did a good job," said Turner. "There's no excuse - I got beaten fair and square. It hurts even more when it's your teammate!"

Matt Neal, who can make sure of winning a second successive BTCC title for Team Dynamics if he outscores nearest rival Colin Turkington in tomorrow's three races, will start third alongside team-mate Gordon Shedden.

Turkington pipped WSR team-mate Rob Collard for fifth on the grid, with the third Dynamics Honda Integra-R of Gareth Howell seventh.

Tom Chilton, on pole at the Brands Hatch season-opener in April, was the best of the Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch runners in eighth ahead of Fabrizio Giovanardi.

Behind them was Mike Jordan, who had flown in the morning's two free practice sessions but could manage only tenth on the grid.

BTCC returnee Paul O'Neill qualified 13th on his first appearance since 2003 in Tech-Speed Motorsport's Vauxhall Astra Coupe.

Of the newcomers, former TVR Le Mans driver Chris Stockton was the most successful, qualifying a solid 16th in one of BTC Racing's ex-Speedequipe Lexus IS200s.

Pos  Driver            Make                  Time             Laps
 1.  Jason Plato       SEAT Leon             49.368            28
 2.  Darren Turner     SEAT Leon             49.375  + 0.007   25
 3.  Matt Neal         Honda Integra         49.513  + 0.145   21
 4.  Gordon Shedden    Honda Integra         49.541  + 0.173   25
 5.  Colin Turkington  MG ZS                 49.639  + 0.271   25
 6.  Robert Collard    MG ZS                 49.701  + 0.333   28
 7.  Gareth Howell     Honda Integra         49.745  + 0.377   29
 8.  Tom Chilton       Vauxhall Astra        49.773  + 0.405   18
 9.  F. Giovanardi     Vauxhall Astra        49.788  + 0.420   22
10.  Mike Jordan       Honda Integra         49.790  + 0.422   30
11.  Jason Hughes      MG ZS                 49.815  + 0.447   29
12.  Gavin Smith       Vauxhall Astra        50.043  + 0.675   20
13.  Paul O'neill      Vauxhall Astra Coupe  50.097  + 0.729   27
14.  David Pinkney     Honda Integra         50.201  + 0.833   24
15.  James Kaye        Honda Civic Type R    50.422  + 1.054   13
16.  Chris Stockton    Lexus IS200           50.954  + 1.586   13
17.  Adam Jones        Lexus IS200           50.957  + 1.589   22
18.  Martyn Bell       BMW 320i E46          51.384  + 2.016   29
19.  Nick Leason       Vauxhall Astra Coupe  51.574  + 2.206   25
20.  Darren Dowling    Lexus IS200           51.816  + 2.448   17
21.  Mark Smith        Alfa Romeo 156        51.988  + 2.620   25
22.  Mark Jones        Lexus IS200           52.061  + 2.693   14
23.  Eoin Murray       Alfa Romeo 156        No time