Plato Racing’s Adam Morgan took pole position for the British Touring Car Championship qualifying race at Knockhill, as Laser Tools Racing’s Gordon Shedden just missed out by 0.030 seconds.

Morgan and Shedden took part in different halves of the session, with Morgan going out in the first group along with his Plato Racing team-mate Daniel Rowbottom.

Both Mercedes drivers were on top form during qualifying, with Morgan ultimately going quickest with a lap of 50.830 seconds.

In the second group, Shedden had been on top of the times anyway, before the Scot improved again in the closing seconds, but his time of 50.860 seconds was not quite good enough to claim pole.

The Toyota driver will nonetheless start on the front row of the grid, as each group gets its own ‘column’ in the starting formation in order of times in their respective sessions.

Daniel Rowbottom was third, 0.194 seconds slower than his team-mate, with Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley joining him on the second row as the second-best Independent driver and the quickest of the Hyundai sextet.

WSR duo Charles Rainford and Daryl De Leon, who took part in separate halves of the qualifying draw, will share the third row of the grid, with Rainford a quarter of a second off pole.

Title contenders Tom Ingram and Ash Sutton struggled for pace, with Team VERTU’s Ingram down in 11th after losing five lap times for exceeding track limits. NAPA racing UK’s Sutton was only 16th, having been eighth in his group.