SEATs dominate in Snetterton qualifying

SEAT’s two drivers Jason Plato and Darren Turner will start the first of tomorrow’s three HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship rounds at the Snetterton circuit in Norfolk from the front row of the grid.

Click here for full qualifying times.

Their turbo-diesel Leon TDIs dominated qualifying with Plato achieving pole position in a time of 1m11.145s – well inside the lap record. Turner, in second, was close behind with a best time of 1m11.267s.

Oxford-based Plato, fourth in the current standings, said: “Perfect. Our car is working beautifully here and I only needed a couple of laps to produce that time. But tomorrow is a different day and despite the nice gap back to the others we’ll be taking nothing for granted.

“I’ve said before, though, that is a make or break weekend in terms of the championship.”

Gordon Shedden headed the rest of the field with the third fastest time in his Team Halfords Honda Civic, with reigning Champion and current championship leader Fabrizio Giovanardi fourth in his Vauxhall Vectra VXR – a great effort in a car carrying maximum success ballast.

But there were dramas for Italian Giovanardi who, after setting his time, had his car break down at the side of the track with a broken radiator. Team-mate Matt Neal, who is second in the standings, was back in 11th after a spin.

Elsewhere, the fight to be the top Independent runner went the way of Colin Turkington’s Team RAC BMW 320si in seventh but he was only just ahead of fellow BMW driver Stephen Kane (Motorbase) and Adam Jones’s Team Air Cool SEAT Leon.

Jones will start tomorrow’s action leading the Independent standings by five points from Turkington and BMW Dealer Team UK’s Mat Jackson who qualified 13th fastest in a rebuilt car following a shunt in morning practice.

Meanwhile, Andrew Jordan was able to set the 14th fastest time after his John Guest Racing crew had fixed gearbox problems with his Honda Integra.

Harry Vaulkhard was late out into the session after his Robertshaw Racing team had to use the process of elimination to determine why his Chevrolet Lacetti wouldn’t fire up. The team eventually got him out after it was discovered that there was a crank sensor problem, and he went on to qualify 17th.

Click here for full qualifying times.

Source: www.btcc.net