Brands Hatch Qualifying Report

Sat 4th April 2009 Matt Neal took the first pole position of 2009 at Brands Hatch this afternoon. The VX Racing driver will be joined on the front row by his teammate and reigning champion Fabrizio Giovanardi.

So confident were the Vauxhall team that their three cars spent the final third of the session sitting in the pitlane. Andrew Jordan starts fifth in the third Vectra.

After taking pole, Neal said, “I’m thrilled, absolutely thrilled. It’s a bit unexpected actually. I thought Fabrizio’s on his usual top form and the BMs have been strong, the Hondas, everything. I thought Jason might even spring a surprise on us. I’m absolutely thrilled, and to get a 1-2 on the front row – I’m over the moon.”

Giovanardi commented, “We are first and second, so we couldn’t ask for a better start to the season. The race is another story. We have a good car. We did a good time, so we are happy. There was no reason to fight together in qualifying. We did a good job.”

An impressive final run put Airwaves BMW driver Rob Collard third on the grid. Keeping up his consistently quick pace, Collard lapped almost two hundredths of a second faster than he managed in the morning sessions, leaving him as the first of the BMW drivers.

Collard said: “There’s not another inch of track in that car. We tried to improve it on our first run, with a different setup, but it didn’t work and we actually went slower. We had to come back in and just put some tyres on it for the last run and I did a 48.9, which I told the team I could do.”

Reigning Independent champion Colin Turkington will start the opening race of the year from fourth spot, with Andy Jordan fifth. Jonathan Adam qualified sixth for his maiden BTCC race, just ahead of Gordon Shedden and Stephen Jelley. Jelley’s session was cut short when he landed in the gravel trap on the outside of Paddock Hill Bend, bringing out the red flags about 20 minutes into the session.

Latecomer to the series Jason Plato could only manage ninth on the grid, with Adam Jones – the first of the Carbon Zero Racing SEATs – in tenth.

The other BTCC debutants and returnees enjoyed mixed fortunes in the session. Dan Eaves will start 11th, David Pinkney 14th, Liam McMillan 17th, Martin Johnson 18th and Nick Leason 20th.

The two Team Aon Ford Focus ended the session in 16th and 19th positions respectively, with Tom Chilton the quicker of the pair. A lack of top speed appears to be hindering the Arena Motorsport-run team’s efforts, with both cars slowest through the speed traps by six miles per hour.

The opening race of the 2009 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship is scheduled for midday on Sunday. All three races will be shown live on ITV4.