Turkington Claims Donington Pole

Turkington set a time of 1:12.092 to steal pole from Matt Neal by just five hundredths of a second, with the poleman's Vauxhall teammate Yvan Muller a further three hundredths behind.

While the first three drivers were separated by less than one tenth of a second, SEAT's lead driver, and Muller's fierce rival, Jason Plato was more than half a second of the pace, which was only good enough sixth on the grid.

The first three rounds of the series will be run tomorrow, April 9.

BTCC Championship Round One Qualifying, Donington National Circuit:

Pos Driver            Make                Time       Gap    MPH    Laps
 1. Colin Turkington  Vauxhall Astra      1:12.092          97.74  14
 2. Matt Neal         Honda Integra       1:12.149  +0.057  97.66  19
 3. Yvan Muller       Vauxhall Astra      1:12.173  +0.081  97.63  19
 4. Dan Eaves         Honda Integra       1:12.421  +0.329  97.29  20
 5. Rob Collard       MG ZS               1:12.548  +0.456  97.12  20
 6. Jason Plato       SEAT Toledo Cupra   1:12.639  +0.547  97.00  17
 7. James Kaye        Honda Civic Type-R  1:13.029  +0.937  96.48  13
 8. Luke Hines        SEAT Toledo Cupra   1:13.119  +1.027  96.36  14
 9. Gavin Smith       Vauxhall Astra      1:13.129  +1.037  96.35  15
10. James Pickford    SEAT Toledo Cupra   1:13.132  +1.040  96.35  18
11. Richard Williams  Lexus IS200         1:19.510  +7.418  88.62  15