Darren Turner qualified his SEAT Leon TDI in 3rd place for the first of tomorrow’s three HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship races at Brands Hatch, while 36kgs of success ballast cost Jason Plato two-tenths of a second – enough to see him qualify down in 10th, one place ahead of Fabrizio Giovanardi (Vauxhall Vectra).

Darren was one of only a few drivers to improve their lap times as the 30 minute session progressed, as qualifying was fairly static once the initial times had been set. Trying to get a clear flying lap with 20 cars on the 1.9 mile Indy Circuit is always difficult, yet Darren managed to record a 49.533 at his first attempt. Having bettered it with a 49.517, his final 49.401 put him into 2nd place behind Mat Jackson, before Stephen Jelley (in a similar BMW 320si) snatched pole, demoting Darren to 3rd.

Jason posted an initial 49.572, which at the time put him in 6th place. The team had used the morning’s two free practice sessions to try and find the perfect balance, but his Leon TDI was out of sorts at certain sections of the track – most critically Clearways, which leads onto the start/finish straight. Despite some valiant attempts, Jason could not better his first time as he slipped down the order to eventually qualify 10th.

With nice weather forecast for tomorrow, a huge crowd is expected at Brands Hatch to watch the final rounds of the 2008 BTCC – SEAT Sport UK’s final race meeting.

Jason Plato: “The car wasn’t bad, although we didn’t have that finite balance. Carrying 36 kilos of success ballast really hurts at Brands Hatch. I’m less than two-tenths of a second slower than Darren, but that’s the difference between third and tenth. Clearways seems to be our Achilles’ Heel around here and if you don’t get that corner right it’s impossible to overtake on the Indy Circuit. If that is the case tomorrow, I could be in for a bit of a dull first race.”

Darren Turner: “We’ve got used to having a front row lock-out in qualifying, so third and tenth isn’t what we were hoping for. Today’s been a challenge to get the car working well. Overall we are reasonably quick, but it’s been difficult to string everything together. We hit traffic on my first run, had a clear run in the second and hit traffic again in the third. But that’s the nature of the short Brands Hatch Indy Circuit and you just have to try and judge the traffic as best you can.”