Tordoff snatches Thruxton pole from Plato

AmD Tuning's Sam Tordoff has taken his second British Touring Car Championship pole position of the year at the same venue after pipping Jason Plato in qualifying at Thruxton.

With the BTCC visiting Thruxton for the second time in 2019, the Honda Civic Type-R driver will once again start Sunday's opening race from pole position after previously clinching pole at the same venue back in May.

Having set the pace during FP2, two-time champion Plato looked set to replicate his blistering practice form after the Vauxhall Astra driver set the first serious benchmark as the session passed its halfway mark.

However, Tordoff - running no success ballast in comparison to just six kilos for Plato - dipped under the Power Maxed Racing driver's 1'15.890s by just 0.014s, to snatch the top-spot away from the 96-time race winner.

Factory Honda driver Dan Cammish came agonisingly close to dethroning both Plato and Tordoff, but ultimately came up just 0.073s to book his place on the second row in third.

Mac Tools Racing's Adam Morgan translated his promising practice to join the Honda of Cammish on the second row in fourth, while BTC Racing's Josh Cook was fifth fastest aboard his Honda Civic Type-R.

Despite running 42 kilos of success ballast, Rory Butcher emerged from qualifying as the highest title contender after the AmD Tuning driver qualified his Honda machine sixth fastest.

Butcher actually led the timesheets following the first set of runs but fell down the order the session progressed.

Team BMW's Tom Oliphant heads up the fourth row after posting the seventh fastest with Team Toyota GB's Tom Ingram lining up alongside the leading BMW 330i M Sport runner in eighth.

Chris Smiley and Rob Collard complete remainder of the top-ten grid order, with championship leader Colin Turkington following just behind in eleventh.