Jason Plato continued his dominance of the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) at Oulton Park to take pole position from Honda’s Matt Neal and WSR’s Andy Priaulx by less than a tenth of a second.
Team BMR’s Plato smashed his own pole position lap record to take his first pole position of the season, ahead of the Honda of Neal and the BMW of Priaulx. The Volkswagen driver continued the fine form he had shown earlier in the day to rise to the top of the times after ten minutes, before improving his time further inside the final ten minutes.
Fourth fastest was MG’s Andrew Jordan, 0.453 seconds adrift of Plato and with little answer to the top three drivers.
Gordon Shedden was fifth fastest with a lap in the closing seconds of the session, despite the Scot being forced to carry 75 kg of success ballast for leading the championship.
Team BMR team-mates Colin Turkington and Árón Smith were sixth and seventh fastest respectively, around half a second off the pace, although the latter had his best lap time removed for exceeding the track limits.
MG’s Jack Goff was eighth quickest, despite losing all of his times posted in the first 20 minutes of the session due to failing the ride height check. Goff was forced to put in a pair of flying laps late in the session to ensure his place in the race one top ten.
Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram was ninth quickest, unable to replicate the pace he had shown in the morning’s practice sessions. WIX Racing’s Adam Morgan completed the top ten.
Neither of the two JCT600-backed BMW drivers could make it into the top ten, with Sam Tordoff in 11th position and Rob Collard down in 19th position after a trying qualifying session.
Round 10 takes place at 12:17 BST on Sunday.
Qualifying times
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 99 | Jason PLATO |  |
Team BMR | Volkswagen CC | 14 | 1:25.484 | ||
| 2 | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 13 | 1:25.495 | 0.011 |
| 3 | 111 | C | Andy PRIAULX | |
Team IHG Rewards Club | BMW 125i M Sport | 15 | 1:25.555 | 0.071 |
| 4 | 77 | M | Andrew JORDAN | |
MG 888 Racing | MG 6GT | 12 | 1:25.937 | 0.453 |
| 5 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 14 | 1:25.937 | 0.453 |
| 6 | 1 | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Team BMR | Volkswagen CC | 15 | 1:25.976 | 0.492 | |
| 7 | 40 | Árón SMITH |  |
Team BMR | Volkswagen CC | 16 | 1:25.992 | 0.508 | |
| 8 | 31 | M | Jack GOFF | |
MG 888 Racing | MG 6GT | 11 | 1:26.024 | 0.540 |
| 9 | 80 | Tom INGRAM | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 16 | 1:26.107 | 0.623 | |
| 10 | 33 | Adam MORGAN | |
WIX Racing | Mercedes Benz A-Class | 14 | 1:26.121 | 0.637 | |
| 11 | 7 | C | Sam TORDOFF | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 15 | 1:26.134 | 0.650 |
| 12 | 30 | Martin DEPPER | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic | 16 | 1:26.286 | 0.802 | |
| 13 | 17 | Dave NEWSHAM | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 16 | 1:26.519 | 1.035 | |
| 14 | 66 | Josh COOK | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 15 | 1:26.536 | 1.052 | |
| 15 | 21 | Mike BUSHELL | |
AmD Tuning.com | Ford Focus | 15 | 1:26.546 | 1.062 | |
| 16 | 101 | Rob AUSTIN | |
Exocet AlcoSense | Audi A4 | 16 | 1:26.580 | 1.096 | |
| 17 | 55 | Jeff SMITH | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic | 15 | 1:26.629 | 1.145 | |
| 18 | 39 | Warren SCOTT | |
Team BMR | Volkswagen CC | 16 | 1:26.644 | 1.160 | |
| 19 | 6 | C | Rob COLLARD | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 17 | 1:26.664 | 1.180 |
| 20 | 16 | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes Benz A-Class | 15 | 1:26.907 | 1.423 | |
| 21 | 14 | Alex MARTIN | |
Dextra Racing | Ford Focus | 17 | 1:27.383 | 1.899 | |
| 22 | 13 | Dan WELCH | |
Welch Motorsport | Proton Gen-2 | 13 | 1:27.698 | 2.214 | |
| 23 | 11 | Simon BELCHER | |
Handy Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 14 | 1:27.876 | 2.392 | |
| 24 | 54 | Hunter ABBOTT | |
Exocet AlcoSense | Audi A4 | 11 | 1:28.062 | 2.578 | |
| 25 | 95 | Stewart LINES | |
Houseman Racing | Toyota Avensis | 16 | 1:28.275 | 2.791 | |
| 26 | 22 | M | Derek PALMER Jr | |
Infiniti Support Our Paras Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 17 | 1:28.767 | 3.283 |
| 27 | 12 | Andy WILMOT | |
Welch Motorsport | Proton Gen-2 | 5 | 1:31.019 | 5.535 | |
| 28 | 23 | Kieran GALLAGHER | |
RCIB Insurance Racing | Toyota Avensis | – | No time | N/A |