Andrew Jordan takes pole position at Brands Hatch

Reigning champion Andrew Jordan kicked off his title defence in style at Brands Hatch, snatching pole for the first race of the season in the closing stages of the first qualifying session.

The Eurotech Racing man pipped Triple Eight’s Jason Plato by just 0.012 with three minutes to go, after the MG6 driver had topped the times for much of the session.

West Surrey Racing’s Colin Turkington was also a late improver, taking third in his BMW 125i with four minutes to go, ahead of the Honda Racing Team pair of Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden in their new Honda Civic Tourers.

Behind them, arguably the star of the session was series rookie Tom Ingram, who took a fantastic sixth in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis. Team BMR duo Aron Smith and Alain Menu were next up, with Mat Jackson and Rob Collard completing the top 10.

With 30 cars attempting to qualify around the 1.2 mile Brands Indy circuit, there were always likely to be drivers who were disappointed. And so it proved; the headline being Fabrizio Giovanardi, who posted just the 18th best time on his return to the series with Motorbase Performance.

Plato’s team-mate Sam Tordoff in 12th and Adam Morgan’s Ciceley Racing Mercedes A-Class in 14th were also much further back that many would have predicted.

There were a number of incidents during the session, including spins for Jack Clarke at McLaren on his way to 26th, and Robb Holland  at Paddock Hill on his way to 28th.

Collard and Ollie Jackson also made contact, while Clarke, Glynn Geddie, James Cole and Aiden Moffat all lost their best times of the session for exceeding track limits.

The only car not to set a time was Chris Stockton, who suffered a problem with a sensor bearing on the differential in his BTC Racing Chevrolet Cruze.

The first of tomorrow’s three races gets under way at 11.47 BST.