Thompson's Oulton pole

"The car was quick in race-trim, so we didn't change it much, but giving it the big send threw up a few problems," explained Thompson. "Still I did three laps quicker than anyone else and I've got the heaviest Astra, so I think it's quick enough."

Muller was just a tenth slower than his team-mate, with Neal a further two-tenths back in his Team Dynamics Honda, the top Independents' Cup car. Colin Turkington's WSR MG was just a few hundredths slower than Neal, but the rest were rather further adrift.

Luke Hines in the third works Vauxhall was almost eight tenths of a second slower than Thompson, but that was still good enough for fifth best time, just ahead of the BTCC's official 'villain' (according to an ITV phone poll) Anthony Reid.

Reid had the second heaviest car in the field as he still picks up second place success ballast from the final fractious race at the preceding Silverstone meeting despite being penalised two places eventually. The man who won that race - Tom Chilton - was in the wars, struggling with his maximum success ballast and also suffering an engine failure during the session.

Rob Collard was a fine seventh best in his Astra, but upset Jason Plato who reckoned he'd lost any chance of doing a decent time when the Collard Astra and Justin Keen's BMW got in his way. Plato was only 14th fastest.

There were a number of problems and dramas over qualifying and the preceding practice sessions. Plato lost an engine in first practice, his team-mate Rob Huff crashed heavily at Cascades in second practice and did well to set 10th best time having only got out for the final minutes of qualifying.

Kelvin Burt and Dan Eaves only just made it out in qualifying after pre-session engine changes. The Burt Astra expired in a smoke cloud (electrical-smelling this time) after a handful of slow laps, while Eaves only got one flying lap, because his car wouldn't fire-up.

Michael Bentwood's Astra also stopped in a cloud of smoke, but his was oil-based. None of these troubled runners set much of a time...

James Thompson Vauxhall 1m27.638s
Yvan Muller Vauxhall 1m27.743s
Matt Neal Honda 1m27.959s
Colin Turkington MG 1m28.003s
Luke Hines Vauxhall 1m28.432s
Anthony Reid MG 1m28.629s
Rob Collard Vauxhall 1m28.780s
Shaun Watson-Smith Proton 1m28.859s
Carl Breeze Alfa Romeo 1m29.055s
Rob Huff SEAT 1m29.098s