Reid takes Croft pole

"It's great. I'm absolutely delighted," said Reid. "The car didn't feel great in free practice this morning, but we used the team's experience and got it right for qualifying. The team's working like clockwork, which bodes really well for the rest of the year."

A new engine step from builder Judd helped Reid's cause, the Scot reckoning that he'd now got a bit more power to play with. There was something new on second-place Matt Neal's Team Dynamics Honda too.

Neal and team-mate Dan Eaves had a new front splitter for their Civics and Matt made good use of his to bag second on the grid, ahead of the two Vauxhalls of championship leaders Yvan Muller and James Thompson.

Muller had changed his diff' since free practice and reckoned that had been the wrong move, while Thompson had concentrated on his race set-up in free practice. Thommo was happy enough with a second row start though - away from the worst of the first lap carnage, he hopes.

Rob Huff was fifth quickest in the better of the two SEAT Toledos, with Tom Chilton's Arena Honda sixth - also with a new front splitter, but a different one from those on the Dynamics cars. There were two more Hondas in the top 10 too, with Eaves seventh and James Kaye 10th.

Colin Turkington - winner of the last race at Mondello - was eighth best despite carrying maximum ballast on his MG. Jason Plato was ninth in the other SEAT.

Anthony Reid MG 1m25.494s
Matt Neal Honda 1m25.557s
Yvan Muller Vauxhall 1m25.833s
James Thompson Vauxhall 1m25.977s
Rob Huff SEAT 1m26.141s
Tom Chilton Honda 1m26.215s
Dan Eaves Honda 1m26.325s
Colin Turkington MG 1m26.346s
Jason Plato SEAT 1m26.426s
James Kaye Honda 1m26.611s