Colin Turkington claimed his second successive British Touring Car Championship pole, ahead of the MG of Jason Plato and Honda’s Gordon Shedden at Croft.
The result is also Turkington’s second pole in as many years at the Yorkshire circuit, and he blitzed his qualifying lap record from 2013 by more than a second with a 1:23.246s.
Nearest challenger Plato had been the early pacesetter when the session got going on a 1:24.416s – which was already faster than the previous lap record – but the times quickly tumbled from there, with Andrew Jordan the first man to break the 1:24s barrier with a 1:23.881s, before Turkington snatched provisional pole with an effort that was six-hundredths-of-a-second faster.
The limits of both the cars and the track were tested through the half-hour, and after Alain Menu spun, a red flag was brought out to allow tyre walls to be moved back into place.
That left ten minutes for drivers to improve their times, and it looked for some while as though there would be an almighty scrap for pole with the top six drivers in the championship trading times.
But with five minutes remaining Turkington smashed his previous best effort, crushing his rivals hopes with a lap time that put him more than six-tenths-of-a-second clear, which Plato was eventually able to reduce to 0.370s.
Matt Neal was fourth on the grid behind his Honda teammate Shedden, while Andrew Jordan, Rob Collard and Sam Tordoff were all able to dip into the 1:23s.
Adam Morgan had been set to get in and amongst the scrapping leaders, but the red flag meant he had to abandon his flying lap – an eighth place nevertheless marking a good session for the WIX Racing driver.
Alain Menu and Rob Austin – whose team repaired his Audi A4 in time for the session – completed the top ten, with Menu’s teammate Árón Smith having his best time disqualified halfway through the session for exceeding track limits.
Dave Newsham failed the ride height test but was able to recover to 16th on the grid, but Chris Stockton missed the session with engine problems. Round 13 of the season starts at 12:02 BST tomorrow.
Top ten times
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 5 | I | Colin TURKINGTON |  |
eBay Motors | BMW 125i M Sport | 15 | 1:23.246 | |
| 2 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 13 | 1:23.616 | 0.370 |
| 3 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Tourer | 13 | 1:23.768 | 0.522 |
| 4 | 4 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Tourer | 12 | 1:23.872 | 0.626 |
| 5 | 1 | I | Andrew JORDAN | |
Pirtek Racing | Honda Civic | 13 | 1:23.881 | 0.635 |
| 6 | 10 | I | Rob COLLARD | |
eBay Motors | BMW 125i M Sport | 16 | 1:23.978 | 0.732 |
| 7 | 88 | M | Sam TORDOFF | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 13 | 1:23.992 | 0.746 |
| 8 | 33 | I | Adam MORGAN | |
WIX Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 14 | 1:24.113 | 0.867 |
| 9 | 9 | I | Alain MENU |  |
CHROME Edition Restart Racing | Volkswagen Passat CC | 13 | 1:24.182 | 0.936 |
| 10 | 101 | I | Rob AUSTIN | |
Exocet Racing | Audi A4 | 15 | 1:24.229 | 0.983 |