Had it not been for a red flag at the end of the session, Jones would have been higher up the grid than the 15th place he ended up with, having earlier run in the top three.
"It was all going well and we were in third at one point," team manager Graham Davis said. "Adam came in to change his tyres and then when he went back out and was on for his fastest lap, the session was red-flagged.
"It's a great shame for the GR Asia boys who were working until 2am last night and were back at 7am this morning, but its looking promising."
Saturday eve – Heading back to school
If the opening rounds of the season were like going back to school after the holidays, then Martyn Bell must have felt like he was in detention after his qualifying session ended in the Paddock Hill gravel trap.
However, he wasn't too despondent after the session despite ending up 24th on the timesheets as others improved their times as the circuit dried out.
"I'm a bit disappointed I guess but we've made solid progress and when the track was wet I was running well in about 15th place," he said. "I should have pitted for new tyres but the radio wasn't working and I missed the call. I followed Stephen Jelley into Paddock a bit hot; he got out of the gravel trap and I didn't.
"For the first day back at school, I'm fine with how it's gone. We ran a solid race pace in practice and let's see what tomorrow brings."
Saturday eve – Team 48 make Brands
Team 48 may not have been ready to hit the track at
Brands Hatch, but the team still took time to visit the paddock as preparations continue for the its debut in the series.
Although Matthew Gore was back home in Jamaica – a wise move considering the weather – Darelle Wilson was wandering round in his race suit in the paddock while qualifying was going on.
Just a shame his car wasn't ready in time for him to be out on track with his rivals.
"The cars should be all sorted and ready for Rockingham," crew chief Les Wilson said. "We plan to do a shakedown and then we'll be into the race weekend itself. A lot of people think we don't have much experience but we have run in the BTCC before when we were with Mark Smith and our aim is to get the cars reliable first of all and then try and move forwards.
"If we put all our knowledge into it, we'd like to break into the points as the season goes on."
Saturday pm - Turbo 'troubles' for Plato?
Jason Plato may have found one downside of SEAT's decision to switch to the Leon TDi after being called onto the pit-lane weighbridge during qualifying.
