Photo: BTCC.net

Matt Neal takes pole

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Reigning Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Champion Matt Neal has qualified on pole position for the first of the championship’s three rounds at Ireland’s Mondello Park circuit tomorrow (Sunday).

Neal, driving his Team Halfords Honda Integra, needed to set the BTCC’s fastest ever lap time around Mondello of 1m45.333s to achieve pole. Just fractionally slower than him, setting times of 1m45.388s and 1m45.494s, were the SEAT Leons of past BTCC champions Jason Plato and James Thompson.

Between them, Thompson and Plato won all three opening rounds at Brands Hatch a fortnight ago. Thompson currently leads the standings with Plato fourth and Neal, who crashed heavily in Brands’ third race, playing catch-up in fifth.

“I’m over the moon,” said Neal. “I didn’t know if I’d see a pole position this year. This is a great way to bounce back from Brands Hatch. My car feels absolutely fantastic but now there’s the scenario of what weather we’ll get tomorrow and how to keep those SEATs behind me. It could be quite entertaining…”

Plato added: “I can’t grump because I’ve gone faster than I did in practice this morning. There really was nothing left to come from my car, although we seemed to be just lacking that little something on the corner apexes. The Hondas are strong, but it’s very close. It’s going to be a very tough race.”

Thompson, meanwhile, had to abort his two early runs on new sets of tyres following accidents involving Martyn Bell and Fiona Leggate that twice caused the qualifying session to be stopped briefly. Thompson was still down in 15th with just minutes to go before he finally got a clear run.

Thompson said: “My two hot laps were spoilt by those stoppages. It just wasn’t working out for me and I ended up doing my qualifying time on used tyres. I’m really disappointed. I don’t like being third.”

Neal’s rookie team-mate Gordon Shedden was a hugely impressive fourth fastest and the Team RAC MG ZS of Northern Ireland’s Colin Turkington, currently second in the points standings and a winner at Mondello for the past two years, was fifth.

Italian Fabrizio Giovanardi rewarded his VX Racing crew for rapidly curing a power steering problem on his Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch with the sixth fastest time for his first ever race at Mondello. Ninth fastest was Vauxhall’s Gavin Smith who is looking to become the first Irish driver in history to win a round of the BTCC.