Honda in strong position after great qualifying at Silverstone

The two factory Hondas of Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden have qualified seventh and tenth for the two races at Silverstone, which may prove critical in the championship after their main rivals qualified much further down the grid.

Championship leader Sam Tordoff qualified in 17th position, which will become 16th after the application of Colin Turkington’s grid penalty. The Northern Irishman himself qualified in 15th in the Team BMR Subaru, but will be forced to start from 29th due to his penalty for an incident in Rockingham, while Motorbase Performance’s Mat Jackson will start Race 1 from 20th.

“Three-and-a-half tenths off pole given the challenges we face, I’m over the moon,” said Shedden to TouringCarTimes.

“We had a good run. Matt (Neal) aced his lap and also had a nice cheeky double-tow when he got me and (Andrew) Jordan on one lap. I had a decent run so we’re inside the top ten, we’ll do what we can in Race 1.”

Neal and Shedden sit second and third in the drivers’ standings behind Tordoff heading into this weekend, but as yet there’s no talk of team orders between any of the top three teams, with WSR, BMR and Team Dynamics all with two drivers each in realistic contention for the championship.

“We need to monitor it race-by-race,” said Shedden on the possibility of team orders on Sunday. “Since the start of the season, what we’ve said is we must do our best to get a Honda across the line first, and that’s still our priority.”