Plato takes first pole after summer break

Jason Plato has qualified on pole position for the first of Sundays BTCC races at Snetterton. He did so in a qualifying session which saw less than a quarter of a second split the top six drivers on the grid.

The championship leader, Colin Turkington, will start alongside Plato in the first race of what is likely to be a very eventful days racing.

James Thompson and Matt Neal both set the third fastest time of the session, as they tied on 1:12:399. Thompson will start from third as he set the time first. Neal will start from fourth, ahead of team mates Andrew Jordan and Fabrizio Giovanardi.

After missing the first of the days practice sessions, Adam Jones was playing catch-up to the other drivers in perfecting the setup of his SEAT Leon. He qualified in twelfth with his new team mate Gordon Shedden in thirteenth.

The Airwaves BMW pairing of Jonathan Adam and Rob Collard had very different results in qualifying. Adam claimed seventh ahead of Mat Jackson, but Collard couldn’t do any better than fourteenth.

Considering that the top four in the championship standings, Turkington, Neal, Giovanardi and Plato, are all in the top 6 on the grid, the three races at the Norfolk track could well have a major impact on the 2009 championship race.