Fords head Silverstone qualifying

Date published : 21 Aug 2010 - 14:48:20

Tom Onslow-Cole took his second British Touring Car Championship pole position of the year as the Arena Ford squad dominated qualifying at Silverstone this afternoon.Onslow-Cole went to the top of the timesheets after just seven minutes of the half-hour session with a lap of 59.659s and was never headed."It's a fantastic job by the team," he said. "They've been working so hard on the car and it's starting to come together.""We had a very difficult FP1 where we went through a series of tests and none of it worked. FP2 was constructive though and we carried that through."Onslow-Cole's team-mate Tom Chilton was 0.222s slower in second as the pair completed the first all-Ford front row since Anthony Reid and Rickard Rydell did likewise at Oulton Park 10 years ago.Row two was an all-Chevrolet affair as Alex MacDowall, in an unballasted Cruze, again outqualified his championship-leading team-mate Jason Plato, who was carrying 45kg of success weight. Neither driver bothered with a final attempt at pole, but Plato crucially outqualified Honda's Matt Neal, his chief title rival.Practice pacesetter Andrew Jordan was unable to replicate that form as he qualified sixth in his Eurotech Vauxhall.Paul O’Neill gave Tech-Speed its best grid spot of the year as he put his Honda seventh, while Rob Collard (WSR BMW), James Nash (Triple 8 Vauxhall) and a disappointing Gordon Shedden (Honda) completed the top 10.It was a bad session for the Motorbase BMW squad. Steven Kane could only manage 11th, while Mat Jackson had his times from the first 20 minutes deleted when he failed a ride-height test.Jackson, who had been ninth at the time, dislodged part of his exhaust by running over a kerb, causing the failure. He managed to haul himself up from the back to 13th with his final two flying laps.Series returnee Phil Glew also had a bad session due to a driveshaft problem with his Special Tuning UK SEAT. He was unable to set a time.Martin Depper did not take part in qualifying after heavily damaging the rear end of his Forster BMW in practice. He will start Sunday’s first race from the back row, alongside Martin Johnson’s Boulevard Vauxhall.Pos Driver Car Time Gap 1. Tom Onslow-Cole Ford 59.659s 2. Tom Chilton Ford 59.881s + 0.222s 3. Alex MacDowall Chevrolet 1m00.354s + 0.695s 4. Jason Plato Chevrolet 1m00.491s + 0.832s 5. Matt Neal Honda 1m00.528s + 0.869s 6. Andrew Jordan Vauxhall 1m00.636s + 0.977s 7. Paul O'Neill Honda 1m00.661s + 1.002s 8. Rob Collard BMW 1m00.662s + 1.003s 9. James Nash Vauxhall 1m00.863s + 1.204s10. Gordon Shedden Honda 1m00.922s + 1.263s11. Steven Kane BMW 1m01.010s + 1.351s12. Tom Boardman SEAT 1m01.038s + 1.379s13. Mat Jackson BMW 1m01.191s + 1.532s14. David Pinkney Vauxhall 1m01.221s + 1.562s15. John George Honda 1m01.352s + 1.693s16. Andy Neate BMW 1m01.590s + 1.931s17. Lea Wood Honda 1m02.056s + 2.397s18. Arthur Forster BMW 1m02.220s + 2.561s19. Shaun Hollamby Volkswagen 1m02.369s + 2.710s20. Philip Glew SEAT