Jason Plato ‘very satisifed’ with second pole of 2012

Jason Plato has taken his second pole position of the 2012 season at Oulton Park with the Triple Eight MG, setting his best lap in the final moments of the session to depose Honda rival Matt Neal of pole and says he’s very satisfied with the result, but there’s still more to come from the MG.

The two-time BTCC champion broke his own lap record, set in 2009 with the RML-run Chevrolet Lacetti, with a time of 1:26.872, and pipped Matt Neal by just 0.077 seconds at the Cheshire circuit.

“I made a mistake on my best lap at Lodge and lost the end of the lap and the start of the next one,” said Plato to TouringCarTimes. On the next run, I got a bit of a slide on through Cascades, held it, held it and then I was running on to a wet bit of road, and when you’re not going sideways it’s fine to run on it, but I went on it sideways and was off the track. So that ruined that run, so the pressure was on, I had one more set of tyres and thought we’ve got to do it.”

“It was extra pressure because I knew if we got the lap together we could be right at the sharp end, so I’m very satisfied.”

Although he’s on pole position, the Triple Eight driver’s not yet satisfied with the handling of the MG6, and believes there’s some further work to do to get the car ready for the three races tomorrow.

“We haven’t quite got the car where we want,” he said. “The wet free practice one and then also losing most of the second session when it was red flagged really hurt our development. We’re trying new ideas from our Rockingham test, and actually the car’s not right. I’m not saying it’s not quick, but it’s really difficult to drive, so we’ve got some work to do.”

“But I think that’s true for most people in the pit lane. Everyone’s down on mileage, I don’t think anyone’s really happy with their cars, but as the weekend evolves, people will naturally improve their set-ups.”

The first race of the day takes place tomorrow at 12:22 BST.