Qualifying report

Sat 29th August 2009 Mat Jackson claimed his first pole position of the 2009 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship at Silverstone this afternoon.

The Racing Silverline driver lapped the National circuit in 1:00.259 – a new qualifying lap record. He will be joined on the front row by Airwaves BMW’s Rob Collard, whose second place on the grid is a BTCC best for Motorbase Performance.

It’s an all-Chevrolet second row, with James Nash just ahead of Jason Plato. Meanwhile, championship leader Colin Turkington is the first of the Team RAC BMWs in fifth position. His teammate Stephen Jelley starts sixth, with Jonny Adam seventh in the second of the Airwaves BMWs.

Reigning champion Fabrizio Giovanardi led the Vauxhall challenge with eighth place on the grid, while Tom Chilton is ninth. On his return to the BTCC, Anthony Reid starts tenth, just ahead of long-time rival Matt Neal in 11th.

BTCC debutant Johnny Herbert suffered an early end to his first qualifying session when his Team Dynamics Honda Civic encountered a front-end failure. He ran off the track, which brought out the red flags just after the mid-point of the session.

Herbert said, “Something broke on the front suspension or steering. My times were good this morning though, so we should have good race pace. We were heading in a very good direction so it’s a shame it had to end early.”

Championship leader Colin Turkington said, “I’m fairly pleased with that performance. We’ve got all three cars in the top 10 so that’s great. The first run was the quickest, just like it was last year. I don’t think many people improved on their second or third runs.”

Round 22 of the 2009 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship is due to get underway at 11.20am on Sunday.