Although Jason Plato was happy to salvage tenth during today's qualifying at Silverstone, the Team BMR driver was left to rue a small engine issue, which could potentially t🐎hwart the double British Touring Car champion's quest for a thiꦍrd title.

The Volkswagen CC driver spent most of the 30 minute session mired in thick of the midfield runners but a last minute flyer pulled Plato back into the top-ten as his chief championship rival Gordon Shedden qualified onto the front r🌸🌟ow.

To comꦆpound Plato's woes, the 93-time race winner said his best lap was then compromised when Rob Austin made a sligꦅht error in front but didn't hold it against the Audi driver.

"Yeah a bit of a save," Plato told ltxcn.top "I lost a tenth on my best lap with Rob Austin, which wasn't his fault. He made a mistake going into Luffield and didn't realise I ♏was on the inside so he then cut across and I꧋ had to back out of it.

"What would a tenth do? Put me fur𒈔ther up the road maybe but we've got an engine problem. The car at Rockingham wasn't quick in a straight line and it's not quick in a straight l𒆙ine here."

Plato says the issue is isolated to his side of the garage and admits he an🌸d his BMR squad are still yet to determine what the underlying cause for the loss of power is.

"We've seen a big deviation between my speeds down the straights compared to Colin [Turkington] 𓄧and Aron [Smith]. It's just on my side," ♏Plato continued.

"Also with the weight delta, Colin and I should be closer together while Aron should be up the road. I'm a further away from Colin down th𒉰e straight, than he is to Aron.

"We get to the straights and they keep accelerating but I start slowing up. That's not just weight, that's s✃omething else and we saw that at Rockingham. Normally, with no we﷽ight on, the VW's - apart from the Ford's - are the quickest in the straight line. At Rockingham with no weight I was mid grid.

"Here [Silverstone] I think we'll be at the bottom of the speed traps in clean ai🍸r, even with the tow it will be diffic🍨ult. My best lap I did was in the tow. I think the balance is OK but we're just struggling with a little engine problem.

"We're not quite sure what is but the boys are going t🌼o pull it apart and have a 🐽look."