There will be an all-SEAT Leon front row at Snetterton tomorrow, as Jason Plato and James Thompson have qualified in 1st and 2nd positions for Round 19 of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

With strong winds blowing dark rain clouds towards the Norfolk circuit, all 21 BTCC drivers took to the 1.952 mile Snetterton track as soon as the 30 minute session began. Wind chill made it feel a lot colder than the 20ªC ambient temperature reading and the prediction that the track (22¢ªC track temperature at the start of qualifying) would be at its best early in the session was to prove correct.

Within the first 10 minutes of qualifying, Jason was sitting on pole having set a time of 1:11.793, while James was just 0.061 seconds behind, with a time of 1:11.854.

The SEAT Sport UK team had to endure an agonisingly long 20 minute wait while the remainder of the qualifying session ran its course. However, it became apparent that Jason and James could not match their early times, nor could anyone else, and the front row SEAT lock-out was safe.

At the end of qualifying, Jason and James were the only two drivers to break the 1min 12sec barrier, with Fabrizio Giovanardi in 3rd on 1:12.107 (+0.314).

The forecast for tomorrow's race day is for rain in the morning and drier conditions in the afternoon. Be it wet or dry, the racing is guaranteed to be close, as just 0.566 seconds covered the top nine drivers in qualifying.

SEAT Sport UK's great qualifying performance came after two good free practice sessions, in which James and Jason were 2nd and 3rd fastest in both. Only Gordon Shedden (who went on to qualify 4th) and Giovanardi were quicker.

Jason said: "Everyone in the team has worked incredibly hard for this. Everyone has raised their game and worked that little bit harder to prepare for this race weekend, and this is the result. We don't want any good luck, but we just needed to get rid of all the bad luck we've been having lately and so far it looks like Snetterton could be a bit of a turning point in the season. I knew after free practice that we had a good race car this weekend and qualifying first and second gives us the best opportunity to win some races tomorrow. The Leon's performing exceptionally well this weekend and I'm really confident."

James said: "It's always nice to be on pole, but I'm not disappointed because we're one and two on the front row of the grid and it's been a great team performance. Qualifying was very tricky and the strong wind, low track temperature and threat of rain really compromised everything. We knew we had to bang in a fast time early on and that's exactly what we did. I think of lot of the other teams suffered because they weren't as quick out of the blocks as we were. Jason and I have a great opportunity to score a load of manufacturer points for SEAT tomorrow, and that will be our aim."