MG KX Momentum Racing streaked to its fourth qualifying one-two of the season as Jason Plato and Sam Tordoff produced a stellar performance at Silverstone. The session turned out to be one of the closest in BTCC history with the top twenty cars sensationally covered by less than a second.

The MG duo drafted in tandem during the early running with each racer getting an opportunity to push for the ultimate lap, and it was Plato who edged out his young team-mate by the miniscule margin of just 0.009s to claim his third pole position of the 2013 campaign.

"I think we're in pretty good shape," said Plato. "Our race pace was really good last year here so we're well placed for tomorrow. I'm pleased to get another one-two for the MG KX Momentum Racing team, but we've got to convert it to results in all three races tomorrow."

Dave Newsham backed-up his practice pace from earlier in the day with an impressive run to third on the grid – his and Speedworks Motorsport’s best qualifying performance of the season so far.

"It's been good to have a strong qualifying because we haven't been able to hook it up this season so far," beamed Newsham. "We came here with a completely different car and we've been on it from the word go."

Championship challenger Colin Turkington will steal a march on his main title rivals by completing the second row for tomorrow's opener in his eBay Motors BMW, as Honda endured its most difficult qualifying session of the season.

The fastest Honda Civic driver has qualified in either the first or second rows in the previous eight events this season, but incredibly Matt Neal produced the best performance for the Japanese marque down in ninth place here at Silverstone. Championship leader Andrew Jordan could only manage tenth while reigning supremo Gordon Shedden qualified in 15th – his lowest position of 2013.

Despite the challenging session for all the Honda drivers, Jordan remained upbeat: "I'm actually really pleased with my lap – I was really smooth and the car felt great. It's good to be so close to Matt Neal with maximum ballast, and to be ahead of Shedden is really important. Turkington will be really strong from his grid spot tomorrow, but I've got to run my own race."

Three young guns took maximum advantage of the woes experienced by the main contenders with Frank Wrathall being particularly impressive. Despite running in the top five early on Wrathall's Dynojet Toyota failed a mid-session ride height test and the stewards removed his lap times from the leader board. Undeterred by the set-back, Wrathall returned and fired himself back into fifth late on after his team had corrected the issue.

Jack Goff completed the best qualifying display of his short BTCC career when he hauled his Vauxhall Insignia into sixth ahead of the ever-consistent Adam Morgan in the Ciceley Racing Toyota Avensis. The eBay Motors BMW of Rob Collard did enough to edge out the aforementioned Neal and Jordan to claim eighth.

Andy Neate narrowly missed out on a top ten qualifying berth but the Team Club 44 squad will be hugely buoyed by the potential shown in its Chevrolet Cruze, particularly after the unfortunate shunt in the recent Rockingham opener that forced the car out of the remainder of the event.

Lea Wood continued his dominant day in the Jack Sears Trophy by cruising around comfortably quicker than the Ford Focus of Liam Griffin.

2013 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship – Silverstone – Race one

1 Jason Plato (MG KX Momentum Racing) 58.210s2 Sam Tordoff (MG KX Momentum Racing) +0.009 3 Dave Newsham (Speedworks Motorsport) +0.148 4 Colin Turkington (eBay Motors) +0.388 5 Frank Wrathall (Dynojet) +0.491 6 Jack Goff (RCIB Insurance Racing) +0.539 7 Adam Morgan (Ciceley Racing) +0.5408 Robert Collard (eBay Motors) +0.578 9 Matt Neal (Honda Yuasa Racing) +0.587 10 Andrew Jordan (Pirtek Racing) +0.611 11 Andy Neate (Team Club 44) +0.624 12 Mat Jackson (Airwaves Racing) +0.675 13 Aron Smith (Airwaves Racing) +0.690 14 Daniel Welch (Welch Motorsport with Sopp + Sopp) +0.716 15 Gordon Shedden (Honda Yuasa Racing) +0.722 16 Howard Fuller (RCIB Insurance Racing) +0.778 17 Will Bratt (Rob Austin Racing) +0.804 18 Jeff Smith (Pirtek Racing) +0.889 19 Rob Austin (WIX Racing) +0.894 20 Ollie Jackson (Speedworks Motorsport) +0.972 21 Tom Onslow-Cole (Airwaves Racing) +1.056 22 Nick Foster (eBay Motors) +1.281 23 Aiden Moffat (PPCGB/Kraftwerk Racing) +1.597 24 Lea Wood (Wheel Heaven/Houseman Racing) +1.635 25 Liam Griffin (Addison Lee Motorbase) +1.870 26 Warren Scott (Team BMR Restart) No Times Set