Ant Whorton-Eales led the way in the opening Renault UK Clio Cup qualifying session of the 2016 season with a pair of pole positions at Brands Hatch.
Despite being one of seven drivers to have lap times disallowed for exceeding track limits, Whorton-Eales’ best effort of 52.173s was enough to top the timesheets in an incredibly close session.
Less than a tenth of a second separated Whorton-Eales and the surprise package of the session Daniel Rowbottom, with 22 of the 23 cars on the grid split by less than a second.
Behind Whorton-Eales and Rowbottom on the front row for race one, Paul Streather was an impressive third ahead of experienced series returnee Lee Pattison.
Mike Bushell, the fastest man in practice yesterday, could only managed fifth ahead of his Team Pyro team-mate Josh Price, Paul Rivett, Anton Spires, Dan Zelos and David Dickenson.
For race two, Pattison’s second best effort secured him the front row spot alongside Whorton-Eales, with Rivett and Zelos also improving their positions to share row two.
Bushell will be fifth on the grid again, with Streather rounding out the top ten ahead of Spires, Rowbottom, Max Coates and Dickenson.
On the fringes of the top ten for the opener were Coates, Sam Watkins and Charlie Ladell, with Ladell up to eleventh for race two ahead of Luke Kidsley and Price.
Full qualifying results can be found here.
