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British Touring Car Championship
Brands Hatch (GP) - Qualifying - 11/10/14

By MJP Media | 11 October 2014

Jason Plato takes pole position in an exciting qualifying session at Brands Hatch. Sam Tordoff makes it a front row lockout for the MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save team.

Jason Plato on his way to pole position in the qualifying session

The final qualifying session of the 2014 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship started in bright autumn sunshine, however with the already wet track this was likely to cause dazzling visibility problems on the Cooper Straight as the cars head up towards Surtees. Given the state of the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit, tyre choice was going to be a major decision and it was almost certain that the fastest times would be done late in the session - if the rain stayed away.

At the start of the session, all the cars went out on wet weather tyres with Jason Plato setting the early pace a full half second ahead of his MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save team-mate Sam Tordoff and a second ahead of Gordon Shedden. As the tyres started to bed in, others closed the gap on the 2 MGs with Rob Collard 3rd and Mat Jackson 4th. After 10 minutes, Alain Menu in the Volkswagen CC was the first driver to go out on full dry weather tyres, closely followed by Gordon Shedden, Jason Plato and following Plato into the pit for slicks, Colin Turkington.

Sam Tordoff will join his team-mate on the front row of the grid

The halfway point in the session saw yellow flags in the second sector as Matt Neal set the fastest time with a 1:41.177 on wet weather tyres. As the track continued to dry, most of the drivers switched to slick tyres and initially it was Alain Menu who set the fastest time, 2.8 seconds ahead of anyone else. Gordon Shedden then improved on Menu's time by a further half a second, leaving Menu in second and Colin Turkington in 3rd, whilst Jason Plato was down in 6th.

With only 8 minutes to go, the clouds rolled in and the threat of rain returned to spice up the session. In the big push ahead of any possible downpour, Jason Plato muscled his way up to 2nd as Gordon Shedden re-took the top spot. Fabrizio Giovanardi was running in 3rd place with Colin Turkington 4th. With time running out on the session, Turkington was able to leapfrog Jason Plato to go 2nd behind Gordon Shedden, before Plato put in a massive lap and took pole position.

Gordon Shedden will start race 1 on the 2nd row of the grid

The session ended in controversy as it was red flagged after Dave Newsham in the AmD Tuning.com Ford Focus ST went off into the gravel at the Sheene Curve, leaving Colin Turkington unable to respond to Plato's fast lap. This left the top ten for tomorrow's first race as: Jason Plato, Sam Tordoff, Gordon Shedden, Colin Turkington, Adam Morgan, Fabrizio Giovanardi, James Cole, Mat Jackson, Nick Foster and Dave Newsham. This result gives Jason Plato a championship point for pole position and significantly, he has his team-mate Sam Tordoff in front of Colin Turkington for the start of the first race.

The scene is set for a monumental day of racing tomorrow. Will Jason Plato be able to pull off the most unlikely of championship victories? Will Colin Turkington be able to get past Sam Tordoff and challenge Plato for the lead? Should Turkington not take the risk and just settle for the points? All will be revealed tomorrow morning with race 1 and we will be there for you.

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