Tom Onslow-Cole has secured his first pole position in two years during qualifying for the British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch, with Pirtek Motorsport’s Andrew Jordan joining him on the front row.
Click here for the full Round 28 Qualifying times.
eBay Motors’ Onslow-Cole secured his first pole position since Silverstone 2010 thanks to a late flying lap that pipped Jordan to the top. The BMW driver was just 0.088 seconds faster than the Honda pilot.
Third fastest was Matt Neal, the first of the three championship protagonists. Neal, who is carrying 27 kg of success ballast, will be joined by Rob Collard in the second row of the grid.
Jason Plato was fifth fastest, losing out in the closing seconds of the session. Indeed Plato had just started what looked to be his final flying lap when he spun out at Paddock Hill Bend, squashing any attempts of a late pole position.
Adam Morgan took his best-ever BTCC qualifying position with sixth, 0.585 seconds off the pace.
Championship leader Gordon Shedden was seventh fastest, carrying the maximum 45 kg of success ballast. Shedden was 0.608 seconds off pole but crucially only 0.026 seconds slower than Plato, his main championship rival who is 15 points behind in the championship.
An impressive eighth fastest was Team HARD’s Aaron Williamson, who is making his debut in the series this weekend. Williamson looked strong throughout the session and posted his best time with five minutes left in the half hour session.
Mat Jackson and Dave Newsham completed the top ten for Redstone Racing and Team ES Racing respectively.
The first BTCC race takes place at 11:32 BST on Sunday.