Jason Plato takes first pole of 2017 in Knockhill qualifying lottery

Subaru Team BMR’s Jason Plato has taken his first pole position of the season in a frenetic qualifying session at Knockhill, leading a Subaru 1-2 with team-mate Ash Sutton second, with Colin Turkington’s BMW third.

The session started in wet conditions after rain began to fall again just 30-minutes before the start, with a number of spins and slides as the cars tried to manage the tricky conditions.

Ash Sutton took the lead during the early part of the session, while qualifying was twice suspended behind two red flags after an advertising hoarding was knocked onto the track.

During the final ten minutes, drivers then began to risk slick tyres as a dry line was beginning to form, which saw a bizarre last ten minutes as pole position changed hands on almost every driver’s lap.

Local hero Gordon Shedden was the first driver to set the fastest time on slicks in his Team Dynamics Honda, despite 75kg of ballast, before the West Surrey Racing BMWs came to the fore, with Turkington first going fastest before team-mate Andrew Jordan.

Pole would change hands again between the Subaru of Ash Sutton, the Vauxhall of Tom Chilton and the Ford of Mat Jackson, before the BMW of Rob Collard took over at the top of the times, before the Subarus again snuck ahead, first Sutton, then Plato.

Plato’s pole position is the 50th of his career for the 49-year-old, outqualifing Sutton by just under a tenth of a second.

Turkington finished third, with Collard fourth in a hastily repaired BMW 125i M Sport after early technical issues.

Tom Ingram was the best of the front-wheel drive runners in fifth in the Speedworks Toyota, with James Cole’s Subaru sixth ahead of Senna Proctor’s Vauxhall.

The BTC Chevrolet of Dave Newsham, the Honda of Gordon Shedden and the Mercedes of Adam Morgan completed the top ten.

Race 1 is due to start at 11:50 BST tomorrow.