The three-time champion wrung everything out of himself and his Motorbase Performance-run Ford Focus ST in the Q2 top-10 shootout to pip the One Motorsport Honda Civic Type R of Josh Cook by 0.006 seconds.
Qualifying had started on a wet track with the entire field on grooved tyres, but at the halfway point former World Touring Car champion Rob Huff was the first to emerge on the soft-compound slick Goodyears, and the crossover point soon emerged.
