A contented James Thompson took pole for round seven of the championship at a sunny Silverstone circuit this afternoon. Shortly after the end of the session he commented, “This is my second pole of the year. I put in the first lap as a banker but then went quicker on my second. It was good to quicker than this morning even though the track temperature had gone up quite a lot.”

Thompson’s team-mate and closest rival for this years championship title, Yvan Muller, took third place on the grid in the heavily ballasted car following his double win at Thruxton. Muller commented, “Third position was the best I could hope for here considering the weight penalty I am carrying. I was hoping for better but wasn’t expecting it.”

“The balance of the car is ok. We have a slight understeer and maybe could have found another tenth, but that’s all. I think the race is going to be difficult because we couldn’t do much in the wet session this morning. It could be very surprising.”

Sandwiched between the two Vauxhall Astra Coupes was Honda Racing’s, Matt Neal, who put in an impressive performance despite having a problem with the car. Neal said, “We can’t nail the problem down. It was fine in the wet in the first session and then it came to light in the second session. We thought we’d fixed it for qualifying but it came back even worse! I had hoped to give the Vauxhall boys a run for their money.”

The MGs of Warren Hughes and Colin Turkington will start Sunday’s first race from fourth and fifth positions respectively, and will be hoping to make up for the disappointments of Thruxton two weeks ago.

Leading Independent driver was GA Motorsport’s Gavin Pyper, in 6th spot, just 0.517 behind Thompson’s works Astra. Pyper’s Hilton Independent Cup rival, Rob Collard, ended the session down in 14th, and said, “It was difficult this morning with the first session being wet. We could have done with more time to run the car in but we were relatively happy with 11th place this morning in the practice session.”

“We made some changes for qualifying which we knew would help the running of the car but when we got out on the track there was something wrong. I stopped on the weighbridge and fortunately the car restarted but from there on we had a misfire. I think we’ve found the problem now but I am disappointed to be 14th on the grid. Starting that far back is a recipe for disaster. I will do the best I can in the opening laps to stay out of trouble and then try to get into the top ten.”

On his return to the BTCC, driving a Team Dynamics prepared Vauxhall Astra Coupe, 22 year-old Gareth Howell qualified in 11th position, having driven the car for the first time in free practice this morning.

The team Halfords Peugeot 307 of Dan Eaves qualified in 15th, closely followed by team-mate, Carl Breeze. Eaves commented “We blew an engine this morning which we changed before qualifying. It was fortunate for me that the session was delayed or else I wouldn’t have got out at all. I think we are actually slightly better off than the qualifying position would suggest. We are going to struggle tomorrow and have to hope for some non finishers.”

James Kaye was 12th for Synchro Motorsport, whilst Team PSP had another frustrating session, with Phil Bennett 13th and David Leslie in 17th.

In the Production class, Luke Hines took pole position in his Barwell Motorsport Honda Civic Type-R, with Tom Boardman in second and Michael Bentwood third.