Both Jason Plato and Darren Turner broke the qualifying lap record at Snetterton in their SEAT Leon TDIs today, as they dominated the opening day of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship meeting.

One flying lap was all that Jason needed to set a 1:11.145 (98.77mph) around the 1.95 mile track – smashing the previous best of 1:11.588 set by James Thompson (Vauxhall Astra) in 2004, even with 18kgs of success ballast on board. Jason sat in the pits for 25 of the 30 minute qualifying session, staying in his race car just in case anyone threatened his time. When Fabrizio Giovanardi (Vauxhall Vectra) hit a bump and holed the radiator 12 minutes before the end, the slippery line it created ensured Jason’s pole position was safe.

Darren set a magnificent 1:11.267 on his second flying lap, and with his team-mate 0.122 seconds ahead and a SEAT front row looking unassailable he didn’t attempt to go faster either. With a 0.369 seconds cushion back to 3rd place Gordon Shedden, Darren went back out on track merely to scrub in new tyres in preparation for race day.

It was important for SEAT Sport UK to take full advantage of the Snetterton track in qualifying and give both its Leon TDIs the best chance of scoring good race results tomorrow. Not only does the layout of the circuit – with two tight corners leading onto two long straights and an uphill start/finish straight – suit the Leon TDI perfectly, two days of testing at Snetterton had also enabled the team to arrive with an already established good set-up; rather than experiment with set-up during the morning’s free practice sessions. Even the weather was on its side, with warm and dry conditions (20ºC air / 25ºC track temperature) mirroring those experienced during testing.

Such was the pace of the top BTCC runners in qualifying that six cars broke the once illusive 1min 12sec barrier around the Norfolk circuit and nine drivers set a quicker time than last year’s pole setter.

Jason Plato: “We know that the circuit layout at Snetterton flatters the performance of our Leon TDI and that we have to take full advantage of it. We did one flying lap, set what we thought was good enough for pole and parked up. We have a lot of points to claw back because we’re behind in the Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ standings, so tomorrow is very important. We know we have a good race pace and it would be nice to think that we could win two races and do very well in the third. This is where our season starts.”

Darren Turner: “To get both cars on the front row is a great achievement for the team and Jason did an excellent job with 18 kilos of success ballast on board. The engineers have done a lot of work in the six week break and after our test here we knew we had a good set-up if it was dry. Now we need to make a good start and turn all the good work we’ve done here so far into big points. We’re a long way down in the Championship at the moment, but we’re going to take it one race at a time and see what happens.”