Tom Chilton will start the first race of the day in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship from the third row of the grid after his 5th place finish after qualifying.

Tom’s time of 1:10.737 was just four tenths of a second slower than pole sitter Matt Neal in the qualifying session which saw no fewer than three red flags which halted many of Chilton’s runs.

Team Aon elected to go for the new ‘Global’ Touring Car Ford Focus this season and are learning more and more about the car every session but Tom feels as if they’ve found the sweet spot with the car.

Speaking after qualifying Tom said, “The car was fantastic. The handling was superb and I could push it as hard as I wanted. I was quite surprised that the lap time I did was only the fifth quickest, because it felt like it should have been much faster.”

“Although I am disappointed to be on the third row, I am sure we have got a great car over a race distance and that fills me with optimism ahead of Sunday’s rounds.”

Chilton currently lies 6th in the championship after picking up 16 points at Brands Hatch following his podium finish in the first race.

Photo Credit: Pete Mainey (www.psmmotorsportimages.co.uk)

James Mappin is the editor-in-chief covering the British Touring Car Championship. You can contact him at james@btcccrazy.co.uk, on twitter @BTCCCrazy or on his personal twitter account @jamesmappin.