Jason Plato has qualified his SEAT Leon TDI in pole position – his third pole in four race meetings – for tomorrow’s Round 25 of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship at Silverstone. With team-mate Darren Turner qualifying 2nd, it’s the fourth consecutive all SEAT Sport UK front row and the team’s fifth straight pole.

Jason set an initial 1:00.573 pole time before bettering it with a 1:00.327 (97.80mph) around the 1.639 mile Silverstone National Circuit. On new tyres, the qualifying lap times were two-tenths of a second better than he’d done in the earlier free practice sessions.

Darren set a 1:00.959 to put him 5th, before going faster with a 1:00.699 to move him up to 4th. His times were also better than he’d achieved in free practice, as one would expect.

With an oil spillage at the end of the Club Straight, and trailing into the braking area for Brooklands, Jason and Darren parked up in the pits as, for the next 10 minutes, nobody was able to set a quicker time.

As the oil dried, Darren left the pits towards the end of the 30 minute session to try and better his time. He judged his lap to perfection, setting a 1:00.471, which was just 0.144 seconds slower than Jason, to establish another all-SEAT front row.

Jason ventured back out onto the track in readiness to defend his pole position, as SEAT Sport UK was anticipating Fabrizio Giovanardi (Vauxhall Vectra) to set a fast time in the closing stages. Surprisingly, Giovanardi’s 1:01.200 in qualifying was slower than the best times he’d set in each free practice sessions and only good enough for 11th place on the grid.

Colin Turkington (BMW 320si) was 3rd fastest, 0.286 seconds off pole and 0.142 behind Darren, while Tom Onslow-Cole (Vauxhall Vectra) completes the second row in 4th. The top 12 cars were separated by less and one second, suggesting close and exciting racing tomorrow.

Jason Plato: “Qualifying both cars on the front row at Silverstone is another great team effort, because without all the hard work the SEAT Sport UK engineers and mechanics have done to fine tune the Leon TDI we would not have achieved such a great result today. We weren’t happy with the first free practice session because the track was slippery and our car was oversteering. The temperature increased and so did the grip levels in free practice two, so we got ourselves back on track. We got an extra two tenths of a second out of our new tyres in qualifying and it’s a mystery to us why Fabrizio Giovanardi couldn’t too as we were expecting him to be right up there challenging for pole. But we’re pleased with what we’ve achieved today. All we can do is qualify on pole on Saturday and try to win races on Sunday – and that’s what we’ll be aiming to do tomorrow.”

Darren Turner: “Qualifying one and two is an ideal situation for the team. With oil on the track, the team held me in the pits when I was in fourth position, which isn’t where I wanted to be – but with Jason on pole, it wasn’t such a bad position for the team. Towards the end of the session I went out to see if I could better my time, and as soon as I got second on the grid I aborted by next lap and came into the pits. It was the best I could do with one flying lap and getting both Leon TDIs on the front row was a great team effort. Hopefully Jason and I will be able to capitalise on today and make a good start. Colin Turkington is behind us on row two and will be very quick off the line, so the first challenge will be to keep him behind us.”