Tom Chilton was happy but Tom Onslow-Cole fuming after they experienced very different fortunes in Snetterton's Dunlop British Touring Car Championship qualifying session.

In wet conditions, Chilton was third fastest but Team Aon team-mate Onslow-Cole had all his times disallowed when his Ford Focus failed a ride height check (pictured above) – instantly relegating him to the back of the 21-strong grid.

Onslow-Cole, currently fourth in the standings and also the leading Independent, told btcc.net: “I’d run into the back of Martin Johnson’s car under braking out there and am sure that knocked the front-end down – the team got it back into position but I think the air pressure then pushed it back down again. I was very annoyed when it failed but there’s nothing you can do. The rules are the rules.

“It’s a test and I have to get through it tomorrow. There’s only one game plan and that is to go as fast as I can but I have to be careful as well, particularly on the first lap. Then let’s see how far I can get in race one and hopefully target some big results in races two and three.”

Chilton, meanwhile, has been tipped for glory this weekend following his blistering pace in recent testing at Snetterton when he was more than half a second clear of the field. Today though he was kept off the front row – the first time a Ford hasn’t qualified inside the top two since the season’s opening round at Thruxton – by Alex MacDowall and Jason Plato in their Silverline Chevrolet Cruzes.

And he said: “Clearly it’s going to be a fight tomorrow. I’d rather it was fully wet or fully dry – not greasy in between conditions.

“But all this talk of us having a clear straightline speed advantage as well… I don’t really think so. Those Chevrolets were 5mph up on me in qualifying down the Revett Straight.

“Think back to Brands Hatch in the wet – they were nowhere. In similar conditions here they are one-two on the grid. They’ve clearly moved on a lot with their car.”