Photo: PSP Images

Jason Plato takes pole position at Silverstone

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Triple Eight’s Jason Plato continued his day-long display of strong pace by taking pole position at Silverstone, with championship leader Colin Turkington joining him on the front row, just 0.064 seconds behind.

Many people’s bet for pole, Plato took first on his first clear flying lap in a best time of 58.511, topping qualifying on the National circuit for the third consecutive season.

But dominant series leader Turkington leapt up the order with 12 minutes to go, to put himself in a prime position for a raceday where he could wrap up the title.

Plato’s team-mate Sam Tordoff was third, just 0.067 away from pole, and 0.003 behind West Surrey Racing’s Turkington, in another hugely close session. Less than a second covered the first 23 cars, down to Martin Depper’s Honda Civic, while the line-up of the mid-pack will undoubtedly cause a few raised eyebrows.

Motorbase Performance’s Mat Jackson was a strong fourth ahead of the Team BMR pair of Aron Smith and Alain Menu, with Tom Ingram, Marc Hynes, Adam Morgan and Rob Austin completing the top 10.

But for title contender Gordon Shedden, and the Hondas in general, the session was a disaster. Andrew Jordan, Shedden and Matt Neal qualified together in 16th, 17th and 18th position, with Fabrizio Giovanardi behind them making it four champions in a row in the lower reaches of the top 20.

Higher up the grid, both Jack Clarke and Aiden Moffat enjoyed their best qualifying performances of the season in 12th and 15th respectively, but it was an unhappy session for series returnee Luke Hines. His United Autosport Toyota Avensis stopped at the side of the track, and he will start 26th for the first race tomorrow.

Elsewhere, there was plenty of drama throughout the field, not least for Dave Newsham. The former Clio Cup champion lost control of his AmD Tuning Ford Focus on cold tyres exiting the pits, and hit the wall. Newsham returned to the pits with heavy front-end damage, and took no further part in the session.

Both Moffat and Jordan caught huge slides at Brooklands, and Hynes, Tordoff and Clarke all lost their best times for exceeding track limits.