Qualifying: Vauxhalls share poles

It was nightmare time though for the works MG squad, although that was lightened by a great showing from the junior Team Atomic Kitten outfit - the best of which was second fastest for the feature event for Colin Turkington.

Thompson had the best of the day, despite carrying maximum success ballast. The Yorkshireman, along with Muller, played a canny game in the first part of the session, when the track was drying to set second fastest time to Muller, and then moved ahead on his own on the dry track in the second part, when Muller hit transmission troubles.

Just as the session started, so did the rain. Muller and Thompson put in banker laps to head the early running, but then as the track first dried a little then dampened some more, then dried again, the times dropped! Then with Colin Turkington on provisional pole in the Team Atomic Kitten MG, Warren Hughes beached his works version and prompted a red flag.

At the time, Hughes had been sixth, quickest, but that was it for the Silverstone sprint race winner. His car was towed back to the pits, but since it hadn't extracted itself from the gravel, it was excluded from the rest of qualifying.

From the re-start the times tumbled as the track dried almost completely by the end. Muller and Thompson were almost the last cars to take the chequered flag and their final laps secured the front row. Paul O'Neill was the last across the line and grabbed third place ahead of the Atomic Kittens with Turkington ahead of Gareth Howell.

At MG, to add to Hughes' woes, Anthony Reid had also been caught out in the wet conditions and had run over a kerb and split his sump. The WSR crew fixed it in time for part two of the session, but there was no sensible time for Reid for the Sprint grid.

Muller's excellent day didn't last. Before he'd put a decent time in for the feature, the transmission cross-shaft broke, condemning the Frenchman to a start down in 12th place.

Thompson though pulled it all together. "I dragged a particularly large lap out of it," he said. "It was a big effort, because I'm carrying maximum weight, so I'm really pleased."

He wasn't the only one. "Over the moon," was the verdict from Turkington, who felt that the rain had cleaned the track and allowed quicker times. He joined Muller and Thompson as the only drivers under the 1m47 barrier and took a great second fastest.

Matt Neal upheld Vauxhall honour with fourth fastest, before he was sidelined with overheating and then it was MG time again with Gareth Howell and Anthony Reid fourth and fifth. Howell had to work hard for his time after knocking the tracking out on a kerb, while Reid, who was also running heavy, with second-place success ballast for the Silverstone feature, reckoned the car felt good, but that he'd not found a single clear lap.

In BTCP Norman Simon led the way in the Edenbridge BMW, after practice pace-setter Gavin Pyper was sidelined. The Alfa man had cracked his sump on a kerb in the morning and there wasn't time to fix it before qualifying, so he had to sit the session out.

Mark Fullalove, James Kaye and Jim Edwards Jr were the other top three men, while Peugeot driver Annie Templeton was taken to hospital for a check-up after crashing her Techspeed Peugeot 306 heavily at the end of the session.

Yvan Muller (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 1m46.701s 73.41mph
James Thompson (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 1m47.638s 72.77mph
Paul O'Neill (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 1m48.437s 72.24mph
Colin Turkington (MG ZS) 1m48.668s 72.08mph
Gareth Howell (MG ZS) 1m49.248s 71.70mph
Matt Neal (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 1m49.701s 71.40mph
David Leslie (Proton Impian) 1m49.876s 71.29mph
Alan Morrison (Honda Civic Type-R) 1m50.137s 71.12mph
Phil Bennett (Proton Impian) 1m50.248s 71.05mph
Tim Harvey (Peugeot 406 Coupe) 1m50.336s 70.99mph

Norman Simon (BMW 320i) 1m54.118s 68.64mph
Mark Fullalove (Peugeot 306) 1m56.269s 67.37mph
Jim Edwards Jr (Honda Accord) 1m56.913s 67.00mph

James Thompson (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 1m46.738s 73.39mph
Colin Turkington (MG ZS) 1m46.958s 73.24mph
Matt Neal (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 1m47.091s 73.14mph
Gareth Howell (MG ZS) 1m47.250s 73.04mph
Anthony Reid (MG ZS) 1m47.521s 72.85mph
Paul O'Neill (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 1m47.555s 72.83mph
Alan Morrison (Honda Civic Type-R) 1m47.887s 72.60mph
Tom Chilton (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 1m48.001s 72.53mph
Phil Bennett (Proton Impian) 1m48.221s 72.38mph
Tim Harvey (Peugeot 406 Coupe) 1m48.272s 72.35mph

Norman Simon (BMW 320i) 1m52.530s 69.67mph
James Kaye (Honda Civic Type-R) 1m52.929s 69.36mph
Mark Fullalove (Peugeot 306) 1m53.178s 69.21mph