Matt Neal has qualified in second position on the grid for the third round of the British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch. The Honda Racing star narrowly missed out on pole position with a lap of 0:49.723 – only 0.007 seconds behind pole position and championship leader James Thompson.

There were mixed fortunes for Neal’s team-mates in the 20-minute qualifying session held in brilliant sunshine at the Indy Circuit. Alan Morrison took the Civic Type R around the 1.22-mile track in the seventh fastest time of 0:49.991. This was good enough to give the 32-year-old Ulsterman a fourth row start for the first of tomorrow’s 35-lap races.

However, Tom Chilton crashed out of qualifying before he had the opportunity to record a sub-50 second lap on his home circuit. The 18-year-old Surrey driver lost control on the exit of Paddock Hill Bend, spun, hit a barrier on the inside of the track and came to a stop with the car on its side. The red flags came out to halt the session, but Tom was unable to rejoin for the second half of qualifying. Unfortunately, Honda Racing has been forced to withdraw him from the third and fourth rounds of the championship, because of the damage inflicted to his Civic Type R.

Matt Neal: “That was so close to Honda Racing’s first pole position of the season. We had two really good free practice sessions here yesterday, but it all came down to the 20-minute qualifying session this afternoon. I was confident that we could be on the front row and I’m happy to be in that position with the prospect of tomorrow’s first race. A good start will be essential in what should prove to be one of the closest races of the year.”

Alan Morrison: “This wouldn’t have been my ideal qualifying position, but I guess it’s not a bad compromise if you take the ballast into consideration. I knew that Matt and the MGs would be hard to beat in qualifying and so it has proved. However, I know that we have a good race set-up and that will hopefully enable me to make that advantage tell in the races.”

Tom Chilton: “As you can imagine, I’m absolutely gutted at having to miss out on tomorrow’s races. I went off the track in yesterday’s first free practice and then as a result of this took it relatively steady in the second session. I knew that I had to go for it in qualifying because it is so close here, but I guess that I overdid it. I hit some gravel that had come on to the track after Paul O’Neill had crashed before me. After I had spun off, I came to an abrupt stop when I hit the barrier. Unfortunately, there’s too much damage for me to continue, but I would like to thank the team for all their hard work in getting the car into such good shape for qualifying.”