Qualifying: Neal puts Honda on pole

Neal set his pole time of 1m18.024s over just five laps of track. His time was 0.3s up on James Thompson, who was just 0.007s ahead of the second Civic Type-R of Alan Morrison.

Championship leader Yvan Muller set the practice pace despite running maximum success ballast. However, his lap of 1m18.455s put him on the back of row two for the first of tomorrow's races.

Paul O'Neill starts fifth, ahead of Independent class pacesetter Gavin Pyper. Colin Turkington heads the MG challenge in seventh, but team-mates Anthony Reid and Warren Hughes were over 1.5s off Neal's pace in 10th and 11th respectively.

Tom Boardman took a comfortable pole in the Production Class in his Team Varta 307 with championship leader Michael Bentwood second fastest for Edenbridge BMW.

It was a terrible session for Proton, which is running new suspension this weekend. David Leslie had his times disallowed for running underweight, while Phil Bennett lost a wheel on his first flying lap, which put pay to his session in frightening fashion.

M Neal Honda Civic Type-R 1m18.024s
J Thompson Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m18.393s
A Morrison Honda Civic Type-R 1m18.400s
Y Muller Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m18.455s
P O'Neill Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m19.010s
G Pyper Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m19.330s