Although Jason Plato was happy to salvage tenth during today's qualifying at Silverstone, the Team BMR dri🥀ver was left to rue a small engine issue, which could potentially thwart t꧂he double British Touring Car champion's quest for a third 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🍷 h💛is chief championship rival Gordon Shedden qualified onto the front row.

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

"Yeah a bit of a save," Plato told wuqian0821.com "I lost a tenth on my best lap with Rob Austin, which wasn't his fault. He𝓰 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 woul💜d a tenth do? Put me further 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 line here."

Plato says the issue is isolated to his side of the garage and admits he and his ꦅBMR squad are still yet to determine what the under✨lying cause for the loss of power is.

"We've seen a big deviation between my speeds down the straights compared to Colin [Turkington] and 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 th💯e road. I'm aꩵ further away from Colin down the straight, than he is to Aron.

"We get to the straights and they ke💯ep accelerating but I start slowing up. That's not just weight, that's something else and we saw that at Rockingham. Normally, with no weight on, the VW's - apart from the Ford's - are the quickest in the straight line. At Rock✅ingham with no weight I was mid grid.

"Here [Silverstone] I think we'll be at the bottom of the speed traps in clean air, even with the tow it will be difficult. My best lap I did was in the tow. I tꦰhink 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 to pull it 🌞apart and have a look."