Jason Plato took his fourth pole position of the season at Brands Hatch, pipping SEAT Sport UK teammate Darren Turner by just seven thousandths of a second.

It is the third consecutive qualified pole position for newlywed Plato and gains him another valuable point in the fight for second position in the championship.

“Our car’s been working fantastically at the last few meetings”, said Plato following the session. “We should be set for a good race tomorrow. It’s just a shame we’ve had so much bad luck this year. I think I’ve had seven DNFs and each time I was in a good points scoring position, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.”

Sportscar specialist Darren Turner continued his impressive performances in the BTCC with second spot on the grid for tomorrow’s first race. Turner topped the times on a number of occasions during the session.

“I’m really disappointed to get pipped at the end”, commented Turner. “But Jason just pulled one out of the bag. It’s just unfortunate we missed the second session, because it left us playing catch up for qualifying.

The first ten minutes of the session were largely dominated by Matt Neal in the Team Halfords Integra, but Turner went fastest just after a third of the way through the session. He was still at the top of the times when the red flags came out with just over 12 minutes remaining - Mark Jones having parked his Team Forward Racing Lexus IS200 in the gravel on the outside of Paddock Hill Bend.

The restart prompted a whole series of changes at the top of the timesheet. Matt Neal and Jason Plato both went to the top of the times in quick succession, with Shedden going third.

Turner went quickest again with a time of 49.375 seconds, but it was a shortlived stay at the top as Plato lapped the 1.2 mile circuit in 49.368 seconds.

Behind the two SEATs, row two is filled by the Team Halfords pairing of Neal and Shedden. Champion-elect Neal will have Team RAC’s Rob Collard chasing him through Paddock Hill Bend, with the Hampshire racer starting sixth on the grid alongside teammate Colin Turkington.

Gareth Howell starts seventh, with Tom Chilton the quickest of the Vauxhalls in eighth spot. Fabrizio Giovanardi was ninth fastest and Mike Jordan completes the top ten on the grid.

While there are 24 cars at Brands Hatch this weekend, only 22 took part in Saturday’s qualifying session. Richard Marsh has withdrawn from the third consecutive meeting, with a damaged cylinder head affecting the Peugeot 307 this time out. Eoin Murray was the other driver not to take part in the session, with the Quest team struggling to repair a troublesome differential.

Former works Vauxhall driver Paul O’Neill will start 13th on his return to the BTCC, equalling the Tech-Speed Astra’s best qualified start of the year. Meanwhile, best of the newcomers to the series was Chris Stockton, who put his ex-HPI Racing Lexus 16th on the grid, ahead of Xero’s Adam Jones.

Sunday’s first BTCC race gets underway at 11:20.