Smith beats Cammish for maiden BTCC pole

WIX Racing's Brett Smith narrowly defeated Honda stablemate Dan Cammish to secure his first ever British Touring Car Championship pole position during the final qualifying session of 2018 at Brands Hatch.

The Eurotech driver led a crushing Honda top-five lockout as the Type-R contingent dominated proceedings around the Brands Hatch Grand Prix layout.

Having set the pace during the previous FP2 session, Cammish looked set to convert his practice form into a second pole of the season after producing a blistering 1 minute 30.580s lap during his first sequence of runs.

However, Smith, who also featured at the sharp end during practice, managed to go even faster than his Honda stablemate and subsequently dipped under Cammish's time by just 0.043s.

Cammish had looked to set to hit back at Smith to reclaim the top-spot during his second sequence of runs. However, the factory Honda driver saw one of his laps compromised by traffic, forcing him to settle for second behind Smith.

Former three-time champion Matt Neal will line up for tomorrow's first race in third, while Jack Goff and Dan Lloyd completed the remainder of the top-five Honda lockout in in fourth and fifth.

BTC Norlin Racing's Chris Smiley briefly handed Honda a top-six lockout. However, Smiley's best lap was subsequently deleted for exceeding track limits, which saw the Ulsterman drop back down to eighth behind Senna Proctor and Sam Tordoff.

Laser Tools Racing's Aiden Moffat posted a second consecutive top-ten qualifying result in ninth, while outgoing champion Ashley Sutton recovered from his FP2 shunt to qualify his repaired Subaru Levorg in tenth.

Elsewhere, championship leader Colin Turkington will start tomorrow's first race ahead of his main rival Tom Ingram in 17th position, but behind Tom Chilton, who qualified as the highest title contender in 15th.