Jason Plato will look to take vital points out of championship leader Fabrizio Giovanardi after securing pole position for the latest rounds of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park.

For the second successive race meeting, Plato led team-mate Darren Turner to a SEAT 1-2 on the timesheets with the diesel-powered Leon proving to be the car to beat through Saturday.

Plato led the way in the opening practice session of the weekend before Turner paced free practice two, but Plato then moved back to the front in qualifying – posting his quickest time of 1min 27.688secs on his first flying lap of the session.

"I'm pleased with that," he said. "At the Snetterton test during the summer we found something that is fundamental to the way our car works. We made a good step forwards so we don't have to play around and we have dialled out some of the understeer in the car. We still have it, but not to the same extent.

"I predict we will now be strong for the remainder of the season. We have done our homework now in testing and have got the car working. We have the pace and we will see whether it has come too late or not. At Snetterton, a good weekend was undone by race three but I want to go out there and keeping getting pole positions and victories. If it works it works, and if it doesn't then it doesn't.

"We need to get a big score out of Fabrizio in one go and we need him to have a bit of a wobble so we can get the points back."

Team-mate Turner added that he was looking to also score big on race day to boost his own championship challenge.

"With used tyres carried over from Snetterton, I'm happy with my qualifying time," he said. "Now we need to work together as a team and score some big points."