VX Racing’s Tom Chilton is confident he could have snatched pole position in today’s Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship qualifying at Thruxton, had he only had one more set of tyres.

The Hampshire circuit is notoriously hard on rubber – being the fastest BTCC venue on the calendar - and today’s soaring temperatures only added more anxiety for teams.

In this morning’s free practice Chilton, from Reigate, overcame all the difficulties to set the fastest time and looked set to do the same again in official qualifying.

But when his benchmark time was squeezed into third by Gordon Shedden and Colin Turkington, Chilton had no tyres left to respond and took an early shower.

Gavin Smith had to start from scratch half-way through the session after accidentally missing a weigh-in, automatically wiping his lap times. With just eight minutes remaining the Dubliner made a great comeback to put his Astra Sport Hatch on seventh place.

Fabrizio Giovanardi continued his steep learning curve of British circuits, and says Thruxton is the most challenging so far. The Italian, a former European Touring Car Champion, was spectacular through the circuit’s chicanes but struggled to find the correct line on the flat, wide circuit.

Tom Chilton: "The team has worked very hard over the last couple of weeks and we’ve made a good step forward with the development of the car - we’ve gone up and up. I was P1 for most of qualifying but just got pipped at the end. I know we’ve got a good race car so bring on tomorrow!"

Fabrizio Giovanardi: "At Oulton Park I started last and I nearly won the race so I know I can gain positions but I want to be comfortable for the race so I’ll be working hard with the telemetry tonight. I have a good feeling with Thruxton’s chicane but the rest of the circuit is wide with no reference points so I need to look for a better line."

Gavin Smith: "The car has a good engine. It’s very fast down the straights, but when the weather is so hot you don’t get much chance with the tyres. They last about two corners, especially at this circuit which isn’t very technical – it’s just flat out all the way. I like the fast corners but it’s quite difficult when you only get one shot at it on each set of tyres."

John Morton, VX Racing Technical Director: "Tom was capable of getting pole, but you only get a set amount of tyres. There’s no point attempting it on old tyres because there’s no grip."

"Qualifying is all about getting the maximum work out of the tyres over one lap and the race is about trying to make that work over the full race distance. We made some good progress on race pace in the second free practice but it’s difficult to see your relative performance when you don’t know what the other teams are doing."