Sam Tordoff claimed his first pole position with West Surrey Racing in qualifying for round 13 of the British Touring Car Championship season at Croft, ahead of team-mate Andy Priaulx and the Honda of Gordon Shedden.
Setting a best time of 1:23.886s, Tordoff claimed his first pole position since Rockingham last year to beat his team-mate by 0.050s, with Shedden a further half second back in third.
It was the former WSR driver Colin Turkington who set the early pace in the session, lapping his Volkswagen CC in 1:24.728s.
The yellow flags made a brief appearance shortly afterwards when the third BMW of Rob Collard spun in the final sector, although the nine-time race winner was able to recover to the pits.
Having experienced an under-par start to the campaign, Rob Austin went fastest briefly in his Audi A4 at the midway stage, before Priaulx went fastest with Tordoff splitting the pair.
The two then stayed in that order until the final five minutes of the session, when Priaulx improved to become the first man to break the 1:24s barrier that weekend, only to be usurped by Tordoff.
Collard looked as though he had given the team a 1-2-3 on the grid for the opening race, only to have his time disallowed for exceeding track limits. That put him back in fourth, with Shedden benefiting – the Scot carrying 66 kilograms of ballast.
Fifth place went the way of Turkington, who finished with a time one-hundredth-of-a-second faster than Matt Neal in the second Honda Civic and an improved Austin in seventh. Jack Goff was eighth ahead of Adam Morgan, while Andrew Jordan completed the top ten.
Qualifying times
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 7 | C | Sam TORDOFF |  |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 15 | 1:23.886 | |
| 2 | 111 | C | Andy PRIAULX | |
Team IHG Rewards Club | BMW 125i M Sport | 15 | 1:23.956 | 0.070 |
| 3 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 13 | 1:24.464 | 0.578 |
| 4 | 6 | C | Rob COLLARD | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 15 | 1:24.508 | 0.622 |
| 5 | 1 | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Team BMR | Volkswagen CC | 13 | 1:24.536 | 0.650 | |
| 6 | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 16 | 1:24.559 | 0.673 |
| 7 | 101 | Rob AUSTIN | |
Exocet AlcoSense | Audi A4 | 15 | 1:24.582 | 0.696 | |
| 8 | 31 | M | Jack GOFF | |
MG 888 Racing | MG 6GT | 11 | 1:24.642 | 0.756 |
| 9 | 33 | Adam MORGAN | |
WIX Racing | Mercedes Benz A-Class | 15 | 1:24.650 | 0.764 | |
| 10 | 77 | M | Andrew JORDAN | |
MG 888 Racing | MG 6GT | 12 | 1:24.696 | 0.810 |
| 11 | 40 | Árón SMITH |  |
Team BMR | Volkswagen CC | 13 | 1:24.718 | 0.832 | |
| 12 | 99 | Jason PLATO | |
Team BMR | Volkswagen CC | 15 | 1:24.820 | 0.934 | |
| 13 | 80 | Tom INGRAM | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 16 | 1:24.840 | 0.954 | |
| 14 | 30 | Martin DEPPER | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic | 14 | 1:25.174 | 1.288 | |
| 15 | 54 | Hunter ABBOTT | |
Exocet AlcoSense | Audi A4 | 16 | 1:25.247 | 1.361 | |
| 16 | 16 | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes Benz A-Class | 16 | 1:25.292 | 1.406 | |
| 17 | 55 | Jeff SMITH | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic | 15 | 1:25.310 | 1.424 | |
| 18 | 39 | Warren SCOTT | |
Team BMR | Volkswagen CC | 14 | 1:25.325 | 1.439 | |
| 19 | 66 | Josh COOK | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 12 | 1:25.403 | 1.517 | |
| 20 | 17 | Dave NEWSHAM | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 15 | 1:25.445 | 1.559 | |
| 21 | 21 | Mike BUSHELL | |
AmD Tuning.com | Ford Focus | 14 | 1:25.653 | 1.767 | |
| 22 | 14 | Alex MARTIN | |
Dextra Racing | Ford Focus | 16 | 1:26.248 | 2.362 | |
| 23 | 11 | Simon BELCHER | |
Handy Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 15 | 1:26.822 | 2.936 | |
| 24 | 13 | Dan WELCH | |
Welch Motorsport | Proton Gen-2 | 12 | 1:27.013 | 3.127 | |
| 25 | 95 | Stewart LINES | |
Houseman Racing | Toyota Avensis | 16 | 1:27.098 | 3.212 | |
| 26 | 12 | Andy WILMOT | |
Welch Motorsport | Proton Gen-2 | 8 | 1:27.274 | 3.388 | |
| 27 | 22 | Derek PALMER Jr | |
Support Our Paras Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 15 | 1:27.326 | 3.440 | |
| 28 | 71 | Max COATES | |
Support Our Paras Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 16 | 1:27.555 | 3.669 | |
| 29 | 28 | G | Nic HAMILTON | |
AmD Tuning.com | Audi S3 | 13 | 1:28.026 | 4.140 |
| 30 | 23 | Kieran GALLAGHER | |
RCIB Insurance Racing | Toyota Avensis | 0 | No time | N/A |