Pickford rues weighbridge error.

Having starred in the two practice sessions prior to qualifying at Snetterton in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, James Pickford's hopes of a good place on the grid for his SEAT were ruined after he missed the weighbridge coming into the pit lane in the closing minutes.

It was a costly error too as the championship officials penalised him all of his times and it was too late for Pickford to record another lap.

It was a bitter end to a very promising day for Pickford, having emerged as the pace setting SEAT Sport UK driver in the practice sessions, while his fastest time in qualifying would have seen him start the latest round of the series ahead of his team mates Luke Hines and Jason Plato.

Pickford insists his mistake was a mere misjudgement and by starting on the back of the grid the price he will have to pay is heavy.

"Towards the end of the session I pulled into the pits and I didn't really see the lights until I was just next to them and then I thought to myself 'what does it mean?'

"I didn't know whether it was red light go to the weighbridge or green light go to the weighbridge, so I got on the radio to ask what I was supposed to do but by that point I was past the point of no return," explained Pickford afterwards.

Pickford was especially annoyed as his Toledo was benefiting from carrying no ballast down Snetterton's long straights and was comfortably ahead of his team mates before his misdemeanor.

"Because I didn't stop they've taken all my times from the session. I'm really annoyed because up until that point the car was going okay, we had a bit more understeer than we did this morning in free practice but I would have been the top SEAT quite easily. It's just a pain in the arse that I've made a mistake and really paid for it."

Pickford will start from the seventh row of the grid in 14th place.