Darren Turner and Jason Plato have qualified 1st and 2nd for Round 22 of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship at Knockhill, which following similar performances at the previous two meetings at Oulton Park and Snetterton marks the third straight qualifying 1-2 result for SEAT Sport UK.

The team did a great job to get both Leon TDI drivers out onto the 1.3 mile Knockhill track in clear air, as avoiding traffic hold-ups was vital to a good lap time.

In the earlier free practice sessions, SEAT Sport UK concentrated on finding a good set-up for Jason’s car – as he is still challenging for the Drivers’ title. To enable comparable and consistent data to be gathered, Darren’s Leon TDI also ran with 36kgs of success ballast during both morning sessions. This was removed for qualifying, making Darren’s pole position performance even more impressive, as he attempted qualifying in a car that handled completely differently to the one he’d previously lapped the rollercoaster Knockhill track with.

In cool, cloudy and dry conditions, a stunning final lap by Jason got him onto 2nd place on the grid, a mere 0.013 seconds behind his team-mate, despite carrying extra weight.

Tom Chilton (Honda Civic) qualified 3rd, but a six place grid slot penalty imposed for an accident in the previous race will see him start 9th. Championship leader Fabrizio Giovanardi (Vauxhall Vectra) qualified 7th, but will start from the third row.

The quickest 16 cars (in a field of 22) qualified within a second of each other, suggesting that the three BTCC races tomorrow will be very close and exciting.

Jason Plato: “My first quick lap was very slightly compromised by traffic, but my next lap put me up to third and the one after got me into second. I had to try and get pole and my final run was a real take your brain out one. It’s nice to do a banzai lap like that and at the chicane it was a case of aim the gun and fire it. The team told me I could take the chicane flat out; in a camper van maybe, but it was a bit wild in a Leon TDI. It wasn’t a very technically precise lap, so I think I lost a little bit of time in other places. It’s a big challenge to balance attack with finesse at Knockhill, but I was quite pleased with my final time with 36 kilos on board.”

Darren Turner: “Having run with 36 kilos of ballast in the two free practice sessions, qualifying was the first time we’d run the car today without weight. The car obviously handled differently and even my fastest lap was a little bit scrappy. I only did nine laps, so I’ve saved my tyres for race day, and qualifying one and two is a great result for the team. Jason did a great job to get the car on the front row of the grid and the aim tomorrow will be to try and make sure he scores as many Driver Championship points as possible.”