Gordon Shedden claimed his first official pole position at Donington Park for Round 25 of the British Touring Car Championship.
It was a dry and sunny day at Donington Park ahead of a thrilling two-parter qualifying which put the pressure once again to fight for a spot in the top-10.
As Flash lined up at the top, there were several drivers who both lost out due to weight ballasts taking an impact, and a few who were able to put down strong pace.
A 25-minute Q1 session showcased a challenge for the front-wheel drive cars to bring the heat into their tyres over three or four laps before pushing.
Drivers were heating them up, then pitting to cross them over in efforts to generate equal heat across the four tyres.
However, many of the hatchbacks found their rhythm to pursue the 10-minute shootout session as 1 second covered 27 out of 29 drivers.
It was an incident-free session, with the exception of Chris Smiley and Sam Smelt both running off-track on the grass.
Notable drivers who made it through included both PMR Vauxhall Astras and Smiley, though Ingram failed to make it through as with two of the three WSR BMWs.
Into a 10-minute Q2 session, Josh Cook, Ash Sutton and Smiley all had their first flying laps taken away due to exceeding track limits at Turn 4.
It was a strong Q2 for both PMRs as Lloyd landed himself onto the front row, just ahead of teammate Jason Plato.
Team Dynamics brought strong qualifying pace also with Shedden taking his second pole position since Snetterton – only this time not being disqualified for an infringement.
He was the only driver to step into the 1m08s margin, beating the outgoing record from Colin Turkington by 0.004s.
In fourth and fifth were Rory Butcher and Senna Proctor, the latter driver topping Q1.
Turkington lines up sixth for tomorrow’s opener ahead of Dan Rowbottom.
Chris Smiley took eighth ahead of reigning champion Ash Sutton, as Josh Cook completed the top-10 qualifying order.
With Plato and Lloyd at the front, Shedden will attempt to fend off his pole position in efforts to claim his first win of the 2021 season.
| Position | Time | Driver | Q1 Time | Q2 Time |
| 1 | Gordon Shedden | Team Dynamics | 1m09.119s | 1m08.994s |
| 2 | Dan Lloyd | Power Maxed Racing | 1m09.305s | 1m09.027s |
| 3 | Jason Plato | Power Maxed Racing | 1m09.330s | 1m09.147s |
| 4 | Rory Butcher | Toyota GAZOO Racing UK (C) | 1m09.303s | 1m09.214s |
| 5 | Senna Proctor | BTC Racing | 1m09.051s | 1m09.282s |
| 6 | Colin Turkington | Team BMW (C) | 1m09.076s | 1m09.300s |
| 7 | Daniel Rowbottom | Team Dynamics | 1m09.085s | 1m09.360s |
| 8 | Chris Smiley | EXCELR8 Trade Price Cars | 1m09.234s | 1m09.465s |
| 9 | Ash Sutton | Laser Tools Racing | 1m09.098s | 1m09.493s |
| 10 | Josh Cook | BTC Racing | 1m09.329s | 1m09.544s |
| 11 | Adam Morgan | Ciceley Motorsport | 1m09.367s | |
| 12 | Tom Ingram | EXCELR8 Trade Price Cars | 1m09.374s | |
| 13 | Jake Hill | MB Motorsport (C) | 1m09.385s | |
| 14 | Sam Osborne | Motorbase Performance (C) | 1m09.409s | |
| 15 | Ollie Jackson | MB Motorsport (C) | 1m09.438s | |
| 16 | Jade Edwards | BTC Racing | 1m09.511s | |
| 17 | Stephen Jelley | Team BMW (C) | 1m09.519s | |
| 18 | Tom Oliphant | Team BMW (C) | 1m09.525s | |
| 19 | Tom Chilton | Ciceley Motorsport | 1m09.538s | |
| 20 | Árón Taylor-Smith | Team HARD | 1m09.573s | |
| 21 | Aiden Moffat | Laser Tools Racing | 1m09.661s | |
| 22 | Jack Mitchell | Team HARD | 1m09.679s | |
| 23 | Jack Butel | EXCELR8 Trade Price Cars | 1m09.720s | |
| 24 | Sam Smelt | Toyota GAZOO Racing UK (C) | 1m09.778s | |
| 25 | Rick Parfitt Jr. | EXCELR8 Trade Price Cars | 1m09.866s | |
| 26 | Jack Goff | Team HARD | 1m09.881s | |
| 27 | Andy Neate | Motorbase Performance (C) | 1m10.026s | |
| 28 | Carl Boardley | Laser Tools Racing | 1m10.059s | |
| 29 | Nicolas Hamilton | Team HARD | 1m10.692s |
