Jenson Brickley grabs Donington Park pole

Jenson Brickley will start the opening TCR UK race of the weekend at Donington Park from pole position after leading the way in what proved to be a chaotic qualifying session.

Only three drivers of the 21 to take part in the session would make it through the 30 minutes of running without losing at least one lap to track limits, with the DW Racing Astra of Darelle Wilson would be stripped of no fewer than four

Cupra racer Brickely hit top spot little under ten minutes into the session and would then gradually improve his time, with his fastest lap coming on his second timed run as he snared his place at the head of the pack with a new qualifying lap record.

Adam Shepherd would end up with the second-best time having saved his fastest lap until the closing moments of the session, enabling him to vault up onto the front row having looked set to end up in the lower reaches of the top ten.

Shepherd edged out team-mate Bruce Winfield by a tenth of a second, with the two Area Motorsport drivers split by a tenth of a second, with Jac Constable and Joe Marshall behind in the two Rob Boston Racing Audis.

Having elected to switch from his Gen 1 Audi to a Cupra Leon Competición, Brad Hutchison was a solid sixth and only 0.002s down on Marshall, with series returnee Alistair Camp only 0.001s further back in seventh.

However, both drivers would be excluded from the results after the session, with Hutchison failing the ride height test and Camp suffering from excess boost on his Hyundai. The pair will now start from the back for race one with a ten-second delay.

That moved Bradley Kent up into sixth ahead of defending champion Chris Smiley, with Oliver Cottam, Callum Newsham and points leader Carl Boardley competing the top ten.

A penalty carried over from the last round at Silverstone will see Winfield drop to eighth on the grid for race one, with Alex Ley carrying a similar five-place drop that will see him drop from P11 to P16.