Henry Neal has claimed pole position for the opening round of the 2019 Touring Car Trophy in his Team Dynamics Honda Civic, outqualifying the TCR UK class car of Ollie Taylor by half a second.

Neal’s time of 1:44.046 in the FK2 Honda Civic was faster than last year’s TCR UK championship runner-up Ollie Taylor, who was the best-placed of the cars running in the TCR class in the car run by Maximum Motorsport, just ahead of Carl Swift, also in a Cupra TCR.

TCR China champion Sunny Wong was fourth fastest, with the Hong Kong driver getting ahead of Alex Day’s Audi A4 on his final lap.

In sixth was Guy Colclough, a last-minute signing for the race weekend in his DAT Racing Cupra TCR, while Darelle Wilson’s DW Racing Opel was a last-minute withdrawal.

James Turkington missed qualifying due a fuel system issue just ahead of qualifying, but the Ciceley Motorsport team expect to have him out for the first race, while Lewis Kent’s Hyundai i30 N TCR will take no further part in the event after a technical issue discovered in open testing on Friday.

Race 1 is scheduled for 14:05 BST with Race 2 at 16:45, where the top six will be reversed.