Reigning British Touring Car Champion Ash Sutton claimed a last-gasp pole position at Thruxton, edging out BTC Racing’s Josh Cook in the dying seconds of the session on a drying track.
The session, like earlier in the day, began on a wet track with the wind at the airfield circuit once again proving to be a notable issue for drivers to contend with.
Times early on in the session soon came tumbling down, and it was the final flurry of activity which decided the order for tomorrow’s first race, with almost all drivers improving on their final laps.
In the end it was Sutton who timed it just right in his Infiniti, posting a pole time of 1 minute 18.305 seconds to edge out Cook’s Honda by a mere 0.053 seconds.
Team BMW’s Colin Turkington was third quickest, finding pace in qualifying after being lower down the timesheets in practice. The Northern Irishman was three tenths behind Sutton and believed he could have gone quicker if he had more time to warm his slick tyres up.
Tom Ingram had been fastest of all with less than a minute to go, but the Excelr8 Motorsport driver had to settle for fourth as the leading Hyundai driver.
Significantly for Ingram he was able to claim bragging rights over former team Speedworks Motorsport, with Rory Butcher coming in fifth in the leading Toyota just over half a second off the pace.
Tom Oliphant was the second fastest BMW driver in sixth, ahead of MB Motorsport’s leading Ford Focus of Jake Hill in seventh.
Hill had looked set to go even faster on his final lap, but he was held up by PWR’s Jason Plato at the final chicane, who took to the pits seemingly oblivious to the charging Ford behind.
Returning three-time champion Gordon Shedden was eighth quickest in the best of the Team Dynamics Hondas, eight tenths off the pace and the last driver within a second of Sutton.
The top ten was completed by MB Motorsport’s Ollie Jackson and the Excelr8 Hyundai of Chris Smiley.
Plato ended the session in 11th after running out of time to pit and return to track for a final run on slicks, the Vauxhall driver performing worse than he had in similar conditions in practice where he was persistently in the top six.
Dan Cammish, making a one-off outing for BTC Racing this weekend, was 12th, ahead of the second Laser Tools Racing Infiniti of Carl Boardley in 13th.
Elsewhere, Jade Edwards was 17th fastest, although she suffered from a late spin into the barriers and could not therefore improve her time towards the end.
Jack Goff was the best of Team HARD’s CUPRA drivers in 15th, whilst Irishman Árón Taylor-Smith just made it into the top 20 in his new CUPRA Leon and was 19th.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 11:40 BST on Sunday.
Session results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 1 |  |
Ash SUTTON | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 16 | 1:18.305 | – |
| 2 | 66 | |
Josh COOK | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 13 | 1:18.358 | 0.053 |
| 3 | 2 | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 12 | 1:18.667 | 0.362 |
| 4 | 80 | |
Tom INGRAM | Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 15 | 1:18.718 | 0.413 |
| 5 | 6 | |
Rory BUTCHER | Toyota Gazoo Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 17 | 1:18.835 | 0.530 |
| 6 | 15 | |
Tom OLIPHANT | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 19 | 1:18.891 | 0.586 |
| 7 | 24 | |
Jake HILL | MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Ford Focus ST | 15 | 1:18.909 | 0.604 |
| 8 | 52 | |
Gordon SHEDDEN | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type-R | 13 | 1:19.115 | 0.810 |
| 9 | 48 | |
Ollie JACKSON | MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Ford Focus ST | 13 | 1:19.946 | 1.641 |
| 10 | 22 | |
Chris SMILEY | Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 15 | 1:20.045 | 1.740 |
| 11 | 11 | |
Jason PLATO | Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 15 | 1:20.278 | 1.973 |
| 12 | 27 | |
Dan CAMMISH | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 12 | 1:20.393 | 2.088 |
| 13 | 41 | |
Carl BOARDLEY | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 16 | 1:20.713 | 2.408 |
| 14 | 33 | |
Adam MORGAN | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 17 | 1:20.763 | 2.458 |
| 15 | 31 | |
Jack GOFF | Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct | CUPRA Leon | 16 | 1:20.935 | 2.630 |
| 16 | 32 | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type-R | 15 | 1:20.982 | 2.677 |
| 17 | 99 | |
Jade EDWARDS | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 12 | 1:21.274 | 2.969 |
| 18 | 12 | |
Stephen JELLEY | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 8 | 1:21.476 | 3.171 |
| 19 | 40 |  |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions | CUPRA Leon | 14 | 1:21.477 | 3.172 |
| 20 | 3 | |
Tom CHILTON | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 17 | 1:21.615 | 3.310 |
| 21 | 16 | |
Aiden MOFFAT | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 15 | 1:21.852 | 3.547 |
| 22 | 123 | |
Daniel LLOYD | Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 14 | 1:22.370 | 4.065 |
| 23 | 4 | |
Sam OSBORNE | Racing with Wera & Photon Group | Ford Focus ST | 15 | 1:22.655 | 4.350 |
| 24 | 44 | |
Andy NEATE | Racing with Wera & Photon Group | Ford Focus ST | 17 | 1:22.879 | 4.574 |
| 25 | 62 | |
Rick PARFITT Jr | EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 7 | 1:23.765 | 5.460 |
| 26 | 23 | |
Sam SMELT | Toyota Gazoo Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 13 | 1:23.852 | 5.547 |
| 27 | 88 | |
Glynn GEDDIE | Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct | CUPRA Leon | 9 | 1:24.457 | 6.152 |
| 28 | 96 | |
Jack BUTEL | EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 14 | 1:25.131 | 6.826 |
| 29 | 28 | |
Nicolas HAMILTON | ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading | CUPRA Leon | 13 | 1:25.187 | 6.882 |