Shedden tops Donington qualifying

It is the second pole of the year for the Team Dynamics driver, who described the session as "mega, mega close."

He will line his Honda Civic up alongside SEAT's Darren Turner, who made amends for an earlier mistake, when he retired in the gravel on the first lap of practice session one.

Shedden's teammate Matt Neal took third, ahead of independent driver Mat Jackson.

"It is mega, mega close so we are delighted to get the second pole of year," said Shedden, who was just 0.068 seconds up on Turner, and 0.142 seconds faster than Neal.

There was heartbreak for VX Racing as Tom Chilton lost his sixth place and was sent to the back of the grid for failing the weight check. Meanwhile, championship leader Fabrizio Giovanardi suffered an engine problem that will see him line up in 15th place tomorrow.

"Fabrizio had a problem with the engine," explained Vauxhall's Mike Nicholson. "It started on the first quick lap, something sounded wrong, and there he is languishing in 15th. We cannot find anything that's obviously wrong and nothing has shown up on the data."

SEAT's Jason Plato, who lies just one point behind Giovanardi in the title race, could only set the ninth fastest time in his Leon, and will start the race behind the SEAT Toledos of Adam Jones and Matt Allison.

Pos  Driver            Car         Time
 1.  Gordon Shedden    Honda       1:13.486
 2.  Darren Turner     SEAT        1:13.554  + 0.068
 3.  Matt Neal         Honda       1:13.628  + 0.142
 4.  Mat Jackson       BMW         1:13.642  + 0.156
 5.  Mike Jordan       Honda       1:13.651  + 0.165
 6.  Colin Turkington  BMW         1:13.807  + 0.321
 7.  Adam Jones        SEAT        1:13.915  + 0.429
 8.  Matt Allison      SEAT        1:14.015  + 0.529
 9.  Jason Plato       SEAT        1:14.090  + 0.604
10.  Tom Onslow-Cole   BMW         1:14.116  + 0.630
11.  Tom Ferrier       SEAT        1:14.253  + 0.767
12.  Erkut Kizilirmak  Vauxhall    1:14.485  + 0.999
13.  Simon Blanckley   Honda       1:14.560  + 1.074
14.  Eoin Murray       Alfa Romeo  1:14.692  + 1.206
15.  F.Giovanardi      Vauxhall    1:14.807  + 1.321
16.  David Pinkney     Alfa Romeo  1:14.861  + 1.375
17.  Jason Hughes      MG          1:14.870  + 1.384
18.  Richard Marsh     Alfa Romeo  1:15.119  + 1.633
19.  Chris Stockton    Lexus       1:15.343  + 1.857
20.  Martyn Bell       BMW         1:15.666  + 2.180
21.  John George       Honda       1:15.890  + 2.404
22.  Fiona Leggate     MG          1:16.218  + 2.732
23.  Tom Chilton       Vauxhall