Jason Plato recovered from mechanical gremlins to claim pole position for Sunday's opening British Touring Car race at Oulton Park.

The Racing Silverline Chevrolet driver missed much of the session with a driveshaft problem but took to the track in time to post a new record lap of one minute 27.186 seconds and seal his first pole of 2009.

Plato's last-ditch effort edged team-mate Mat Jackson into second place, the eventual margin an impressive 0.411secs despite Jackson closing the gap with an improved effort at the death.

"The car felt fast straight out of the box this morning in practice," said Plato.

"It's always great to get pole but to do it at what is only our fourth event with this car is very satisfying."

Title contender Colin Turkington was third for Team RAC BMW, giving the Northern Irishman a great chance to close the 13-point gap to championship leader Matt Neal, who could manage only 10th for VX Racing.

Adam Jones took fourth in his privateer SEAT while Jonathan Adam (Airwaves BMW) enjoyed his best BTCC qualifying result with fifth.

Reigning two-time champion Fabrizio Giovanardi was the first of the Vauxhall Vectra runners in sixth place, ahead of Stephen Jelley, Andrew Jordan and Rob Collard.

10th-placed Neal, who is laden with maximum ballast this weekend, admitted the sweltering heat at the Cheshire circuit had been partly to blame for his lowly grid placing.

"We always knew it was going to be a tough circuit when you are carrying weight, but this was exaggerated with the heat," he said.