Andy Priaulx takes pole at Brands Hatch season opener

West Surrey Racing’s Andy Priaulx announced his British Touring Car Championship return in style, taking a fantastic pole position at Brands Hatch ahead of the Team BMR trio of Aron Smith, Jason Plato and Colin Turkington.

The triple world champion set his best time of 48.411 before a red flag stoppage to retrieve Martin Depper’s stricken Honda Civic, and nobody could pip him in the remaining 10 minutes once the session restarted.

Behind the BMW 125i, Smith laid down a fine marker by beating his illustrious team-mates Plato and Turkington, who were separated by just 0.001 in the times in their Volkswagen CCs.

Priaulx’s team-mate Rob Collard was a fine fifth ahead of Triple Eight Racing’s Jack Goff, who claimed a career-best sixth on the grid.

Honda Racing Team’s Gordon Shedden was seventh in the new Civic Type-R, with Sam Tordoff, Tom Ingram and Andrew Jordan completing the top 10.

In another frantic session, pole position changed hands 12 times between seven drivers, and the top 18 cars were within a second.

There were also incidents aplenty. Shedden and Alex Martin both had trips through the gravel at Paddock Hill, as did Jordan, whose bid for a third consecutive pole at Brands Hatch never looked like materialising.

The stoppage came when Eurotech Racing’s Depper lost a wheel exiting Druids, and pulled off onto the grass after Graham Hill Bend.

Only 26 cars qualified, as Team BMR’s Warren Scott was forced to sit out the session after his accident in second practice. He will start the first race from 27th and last.

A respectable 24th was Infiniti’s Derek Palmer Jr, who consistently improved his times throughout the day and managed to outqualify both Tony Gilham Racing’s Kieran Gallagher and Welch Motorsport’s Andy Wilmot. His best time of 50.609 was more than three seconds faster than he managed in second free practice.