Vauxhall front row lock-out at Brands Hatch

Sat 4th April 2009 The first race in the new season of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship will feature an all-Vauxhall front row with VX Racing taking the first two grid slots in qualifying today. Matt Neal pipped team mate and 2008 BTCC champion, Fabrizio Giovanardi, to pole position in a tight qualifying session. VX Racing new recruit, Andrew Jordan, put up a fight to post fifth fastest lap and secure a third row grid position for tomorrow’s opening round of the 2009 championship.

The opening practice session of the season gave the first indications of the fierce competition which VX Racing faces, with the BMWs proving the toughest opposition. Following earlier rain the track was damp, drying as the session progressed. Jordan was first on the track and sat comfortably in the top five through the 40 minutes of practice, dropping to eighth towards the end. Neal took to the track halfway through the session but showed he was taking the fight to his team mates by topping the leader board after only six laps. Only Colin Turkington in the Team RAC BMW could improve on Neal’s time, with a lap just 0.065 seconds under the VX Racing Vauxhall, to claim the top spot. Giovanardi, opting to complete only eight laps during this first session, posted fourth fastest time.

The second practice session was held in sunnier conditions and with a drier track the lap times fell. Neal was the pacesetter at the start of the session, but with Jordan just seven thousandths of a second off his lap time and second fastest, the excitement for qualifying mounted. Giovanardi posted fourth quickest time early in the session, but was unconcerned in a drop to fifth by the end of second practice. Neal and Jordan were knocked down to second and third respectively with Rob Collard taking the top spot in his BMW. The two practice sessions had given an expectation of a close qualifying session and it did not disappoint.

Each of the VX Racing drivers put on new tyres for the start of their qualifying runs and after the first of these it was Neal topping the timesheets, with Giovanardi in third and Jordan in seventh place. The second run saw an improvement from both the champion, who moved up to second place behind Neal, and Jordan, who jumped up to fifth.

A red flag stoppage caused by a spin into the gravel for Stephen Jelley in a BMW halted the session for a few minutes, and with 12 minutes remaining the field returned to the track for their final runs.

VX Racing’s rivals tried to topple the 2008 champions, but they were unable to match the speed of Neal or Giovanardi, with only Rob Collard managing to post the third fastest lap to drop Jordan back to fifth place. With Neal on pole, Giovanardi alongside him on the front row and Jordan on the third row, VX Racing is poised for a strong showing in the first race of this year’s championship.

Neal said after topping the time sheets, “I’m thrilled, it was very unexpected. I thought Fabrizio, as he’s on his usual top form, would take it, or the BMWs and the Hondas as they are strong; I thought even Jason (Plato) might spring a surprise on us, so I’m over the moon. It’s important, as VX Racing has had the faith in me and I want to repay them, so this is a good start. The BMWs are quick off the line, so our strategy has to be to stay in front and keep there. If they get ahead of us they’ll be very quick, so we need to just be ahead of them from the green flag.”

Giovanardi was typically calm with second place on the grid, explaining, “We have a good car, we’ve been lapping quickly so I’m comfortable with our starting place. We didn’t need to go out for a third run as we had the top two places; there was no point in destroying the tyres. I won’t be looking to start the fight at the first corner tomorrow, it’s only the first race and I’m happy with our performance and pace. We just need to make sure that the BMWs are not ahead of us by the first corner.”

19-year-old Jordan showed he is close on the heel of his elder team mates, and was happy with his first qualifying session with VX Racing, commenting, “I’m very pleased. I said I’d be pleased to be in the top six, so we’ve done one better than we’d hoped. We’ve also saved a new set of tyres as we didn’t go for a third new tyre run, which although dropped us to fifth, and I would have preferred to be fourth, it does give us the inside line for Druids. I’m pleased to have got through today with some strong results as it will build the team’s confidence in me and is a good start for our weekend.