Shedden on Donington pole

The Team Dynamics Honda Integra-R driver pipped the WSR-run MG ZS of Colin Turkington to top spot despite a rain shower mid-session which looked to have denied the Scot the opportunity take pole.

Turkington was one of the last to improve when the rain first hit, and Shedden was surprised to have been able to respond in the final eight minutes of the session after a brief red flag triggered by Richard Marsh's Team Farecla Peugeot 307.

"I didn't think I had a chance when the rain came," said Shedden. "I thought that the first lap I did was pretty good, and when Colin beat it I thought that was it.

"But I managed to just nick it by a few thousandths and improved again. The car is looking really good for tomorrow. We've been concentrating on race set-up, so to get pole with a best guess qualifying setup is great."

Turkington, despite being beaten to top spot, was satisfied with his performance.

"The car was really fast from first thing this morning," said Turkington, who carried 27kg more success ballast than Shedden. "I got the most I possibly could out of the car in qualifying."

Tom Chilton was the best of the three Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatches in third, sharing the second row with the Eurotech Racing-run Honda Integra-R of Mike Jordan.

Former European Touring Car Champion Fabrizio Giovanardi was fifth for Vauxhall, although sixth-placed qualifier Rob Collard, in the second MG, will have to start down in 12th as a penalty for taking the Italian out of the previous BTCC round at Croft.

Defending champion Matt Neal, carrying maximum success ballast as points leader, will take Collard's place in sixth on the grid.

The third Astra of Gavin Smith will line up seventh, ahead of the SEAT Leons of Darren Turner and Jason Plato. Eoin Murray qualified an impressive 10th in his Team Quest-run Alfa Romeo 156.

David Pinkney could manage only 11th after struggling during morning practice with a misfire on his Motorbase Performance-run Integra, with James Kaye 13th in his Synchro Motorsport Honda Civic Type-R after a hasty wiring rebuild following an electrical fire in practice.

Qualifying times:

Pos  Driver               Team            Time
 1.  Gordon Shedden       Honda       1:12.548
 2.  Colin Turkington     MG          1:12.661  + 0.113
 3.  Tom Chilton          Vauxhall    1:12.784  + 0.236
 4.  Mike Jordan          Honda       1:12.813  + 0.265
 5.  Fabrizio Giovanardi  Vauxhall    1:12.844  + 0.296
 6.  Matt Neal            Honda       1:12.936  + 0.388
 7.  Gavin Smith          Vauxhall    1:13.159  + 0.611
 8.  Darren Turner        SEAT        1:13.185  + 0.637
 9.  Jason Plato          SEAT        1:13.187  + 0.639
10.  Eoin Murray          Alfa Romeo  1:13.207  + 0.659
11.  David Pinkney        Honda       1:13.830  + 1.282
12.  Robert Collard       MG          1:12.932  + 0.384
13.  James Kaye           Honda       1:13.882  + 1.334
14.  Jason Hughes         MG          1:14.529  + 1.981
15.  Martyn Bell          BMW         1:14.766  + 2.218
16.  Fiona Leggate        Vauxhall    1:15.071  + 2.523
17.  Adam Jones           Lexus       1:15.209  + 2.661
18.  Mark Smith           Alfa Romeo  1:16.600  + 4.052
19.  Richard Marsh        Peugeot     1:17.369  + 4.821