Tom Onslow-Cole has secured his maiden pole position in the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship after topping the times in qualifying at
Donington Park.
Having set the pace in both free practice sessions at the East Midlands venue, the VX Racing driver posted a quickest time of 1min 12.140secs which, although slightly slower than he managed during the second free practice session, was good enough to see him fend off the challenge of
Jason Plato to prevent the SEAT man taking the first diesel pole in BTCC history.
Indeed, such was Onslow-Cole's strength out front that the second-year driver only completed five laps during the session – with most of his rivals completing at least double that tally.
The youngster eventually ended up just 0.079secs clear of Plato when the session drew to a close, while
Colin Turkington was able to secure third; team boss Dick Bennetts stating that the Team RAC man had benefitted from barriers being placed at the final chicane to prevent other cars cutting the corner.
Darren Turner finished the session in fourth as the SEAT Leon TDi continued to display solid pace around the sweeping Donington circuit, while Gordon Shedden was just 0.002secs further back in fifth place.
Matt Neal rounded out the top six ahead of Tom Chilton and defending champion Fabrizio Giovanardi – the Italian bouncing back from losing all his times for failing the ride height test to secure a place inside the top ten.
Robertshaw pair Matt Allison and Harry Vaulkhard rounded out the top ten, with the Chevrolet Lacetti benefitting from a reduction in weight for the weekend and both drivers making the most of it to move up the order.
Elsewhere,
Mat Jackson – currently second in the championship standings and leading Independent – could manage only 14th on the grid while there were problems for another of drivers towards the rear of the field.
