Jason Plato claimed his first pole of the year at Oulton Park today by setting the fastest time in qualifying for Rounds 7 of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship. His SEAT Sport UK James Thompson makes it an all SEAT Leon front row, having qualified second.

That is only a small piece of the story however, for it was a very dramatic qualifying session. After just six of the 30 minute session had elapsed, Tom Chilton crashed his works Vauxhall at the first corner, Old Hall, bringing out the red flags. By the time the qualifying resumed 30 minutes later it had started to drizzle, and for the next quarter of an hour it looked like Martyn Bell’s earlier time, which the BMW driver had set in better conditions, might not be beaten.

But as the 17 cars lapped the 2.26 mile Island Circuit, a dry line began to slowly form on parts of the circuit. With two minutes remaining, Jason set a brilliant time to seize pole. James then went faster still, before Jason snatched pole back with just seconds remaining. Having crossed the line just before the chequered flag, Jason was one of the last drivers out on the track and put in a truly magnificent lap to beat his own pole time to secure the top spot with a time of 1:35.063.

Despite being delayed in traffic, James bettered his time by half a second on his last flying lap to set a time of 1:35.329 – 0.266 seconds behind his team-mate. Both SEAT Leons will therefore start tomorrow’s first BTCC race from the front row of the grid, with Bell (+1.390) and James Kaye (+2.208) on the second row. The best-placed Vauxhall is Gavin Smith down in 10th, while the 2005 BTCC Champion, Matt Neal, qualified 12th.

Jason said: “With the track drying slightly, the last lap was always going to be the fastest and we were just in the right place at the right time. The conditions were very tricky when the session restarted after the red flag period, as some parts of the track were a lot drier than others. It was a bit of a lottery, but we have worked hard today on our set-up and strategy and this result is a great team effort and a great one-two for SEAT. I’m really delighted with my first pole of the season.”

James said: “The track was very slippery, so it was difficult to decide what tyres to go out on. We went out on front slicks quite early on and I think that was the right thing to do. I had a little bit of traffic on my last two laps, so I could have gone a little quicker. To have both SEATs on the front row of the grid is great for the team and that’s the most important thing. Now all we have to do is make a good start in the race!”