Tordoff clinches first BTCC pole of 2018

Motorbase Performance's Sam Tordoff has clinched his first British Touring Car Championship pole position of the 2018 season ahead of Team BMW's Ricky Collard at Silverstone.

The Ford Focus RS driver has endured a torrid run of luck for much of the season but has emerged from the penultimate qualifying session of 2018 with his first pole position since Croft 2015.

Tordoff's qualifying performance also went against the practice formbook after the Motorbase Performance driver admitted in struggling with the set-up of his Ford during the two 40-minute sessions.

However, Tordoff subsequently catapulted his Focus to the top of the qualifying timesheets after producing the quickest lap of the weekend with a 58.323s effort.

Amazingly, in just his third BTCC qualifying session, Team BMW's Collard joins Tordoff on the front row after coming within just 0.018s of securing pole position himself.

Keen to capitalise on his first win of 2018 last time out at Knockhill, Tom Chilton qualified his Motorbase-run Ford Focus RS in third position ahead of WIX Racing's Jack Goff in fourth.

BMW Pirtek Racing's Andrew Jordan will start tomorrow's opening race from fifth, despite leading the early order in the 30-minute shootout. The 2013 champion set a 58.480s lap early in the session, but was unable to improve on his effort later in the running.

Honda's Matt Neal joins Jordan on the third row in sixth, while Matt Simpson and Aiden Moffat make up the fourth row in seventh and eighth.

Adam Morgan was ninth fastest for Mac Tools Racing, while Brett Smith completed the top-ten order in tenth.

With ballast playing a significant role during today's qualifying shootout, all three of the top championship candidates struggled further down the field.

Nevertheless, Colin Turkington will defend his 43-point championship lead directly ahead of his main rival Tom Ingram after the top two title candidate’s qualified nose-to-tail in 18th and 19th.