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British Touring Car Championship
Thruxton - Qualifying - 4/5/13

By MJP Media | 4 May 2013

Honda Civics dominate qualifying at Thruxton as Andrew Jordan takes pole position for the first race tomorrow following an exciting qualifying session at the Hampshire circuit.

Andrew Jordan qualifies in pole position at Thruxton

Following the mixed weather conditions earlier in the day for the free practice sessions, qualifying for the third meeting of the 2013 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship took place in sunny conditions as the temperatures continued to rise.

Building on his success in the second free practice session, Pirtek Racing's Andrew Jordan topped the time sheet again in his Honda Civic to secure pole position for the first race tomorrow with an average lap time of over 110mph! Just 0.27 seconds behind Jordan, reigning BTCC champion Gordon Shedden qualified in 2nd place in his Honda Yuasa Racing Civic with team-mate Matt Neal just 0.097 seconds behind in 3rd, making it a Honda Civic 1-2-3.

Gordon Shedden takes his Honda Civic to the limit

Behind the Hondas, Jason Plato qualified 4th in his MG KX Momentum Racing MG6 with team-mate Sam Tordoff an excellent 5th. Tordoff has impressed many people in the paddock in this his rookie year, consistently matching his more experienced team-mate. Jeff Smith completed the top 6 places for Pirtek Racing, creating a MG/Honda lockout at the top of the time sheet.

Tom Onslow-Cole qualified 7th in the PPCGB.com/Kraftwerk Racing Volkswagen Passat CC with Frank Wrathall the fastest of the Toyota drivers 8th in the Dynojet Avensis. Dave Newsham was 9th in the Speedworks Motorsport Avensis with former BTCC champion Colin Turkington completing the top ten in the fastest of the eBay Motors BMW 125 M Sport cars.

Recurring suspension issues hamper Rob Austin's Audi A4

The surprise of the session was the apparently poor performance of Rob Austin's WIX Racing NGTC Audi A4 which was out-qualified by four of the S2000 specification Jack Sears Trophy cars to finish the session in 25th place. Complaining of no rear grip, Austin's team subsequently found that a significant part of the handling issue was a sheared front anti-roll bar. This creates a real worry for the team after the same component failed both at Donington Park and on Will Bratt's car earlier today.

The scene is now set for a thrilling day of racing tomorrow. Thruxton is the fastest circuit on the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship calendar, a fact confirmed with all 27 cars posting average lap speeds in excess of 100mph. The racing is sure to be exciting and we will bring you all the results in these pages.

Touring Car content supplied by MJP Media