Matt Neal takes pole for Honda at Silverstone

Matt Neal has taken his first pole position since Donington Park back in April for the season finale at Silverstone, adding a vital point to his Championship points tally whilst rivals Mat Jackson, Gordon Shedden, James Nash & Jason Plato qualify 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 7th respectively.

Mat Jackson was the first driver to set a competitive benchmark for pole position in the Motorbase Performance Ford Focus ST early in the session, which was then surpassed by Honda driver Gordon Shedden just before halfway in the #52 Honda Civic. With 10 minutes to go, Jackson improved his time again to take provisional pole position.

Jason Plato, struggling for straightline speed in the normally aspirated Chevrolet Cruze, coordinated with fellow Chevrolet drivers Alex MacDowall and Tech-Speed Motorsport’s Paul O’Neill to gai a tow from both cars. Plato’s time was notably faster than in free practice, which was enough to secure the reigning Champion seventh on the grid.

As in practice, many drivers were warned for putting four wheels off the track, numbering 14 in total including Jason Plato and Matt Neal, who’d both avoided receiving a warning in Free Practice.

Matt Neal set the fastest time with just under five minutes to go just as Tony Hughes crashed out in the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis. Hughes crash saw the yellow flags deployed for the remainder of the session with no one able to improve their times.

James Thompson qualified 15th, 0.855s down on Neal on his BTCC return in the Motorbase Performance Ford, the only other driver apart from Neal to be carrying 45kg of ballast in qualifying.

Round 28 gets underway at 11:45 BST tomorrow.

Results updated 19:47 CET