Triple Eight’s Jason Plato set a blistering pace to take pole position at Donington Park, setting a new lap record in his MG6 GT ahead of Honda Racing Team’s Gordon Shedden, and his team-mate Sam Tordoff.

Plato’s best lap of 1.09.460 was 0.131 faster than Shedden and 0.236 faster than second practice pace-setter Tordoff, with West Surrey Racing’s Colin Turkington a solid fourth.

Team BMR’s Aron Smith’s last-gasp effort saw him win the inter-team battle with Alain Menu, with championship leader Andrew Jordan, Jack Goff, Matt Neal and Marc Hynes rounding out the top 10.

The times changed swiftly at the start of the session, before the order was established. Turkington had led the early running before Plato deposed him, then Tordoff jumped to the top.

Shedden then set the fastest time before Plato set his best lap just nine minutes into the session. Despite missing out on pole, it was still the best qualifying performance for Shedden in the new Civic Tourer.

It was an incident-packed 30 minutes which left many drivers disappointed, not least Adam Morgan, who had been fourth in his Ciceley Racing Mercedes A-Class before he failed a ride height test and lost all his times.

Morgan set the 17th best lap in the limited time he had left, and spun off at Redgate on his final lap as he tried to improve.

There was a spin for Motorbase Performance’s Fabrizio Giovanardi at the same spot, but the Italian was still the best of his team’s drivers in 11th.

Team BMR’s Warren Scott also had a big spin exiting the Old Hairpin, on his way to 19th on the grid, while Chris Stockton also had an off on his first lap in the BTC Racing Chevrolet Cruze.

United Autosports’ James Cole couldn’t repeat his promising practice pace due to a problem with his left front wheel, meaning he couldn’t better 25th on the grid, while Dan Welch managed 13 laps in his new Proton Gen-2, winding up 31st and last, 5.2seconds off the pace.