Plato left it late to go quickest in the opening session of the day, narrowly deposing previous Andrew Jordan’s Triple Eight MG in the closing stages before improving by almost six tenths of a second to a 1m09.665s.

A late surge by works Honda driver Gordon Shedden put the Scot second quickest, 0.589s behind Plato, with Jordan knocked down to third ahead of BMR Volkswagen duo Colin Turkington and Aron Smith and the Mercedes A-Classes of Adam Morgan and Aiden Moffat.

The session was interrupted by a red flag with 15 minutes remaining, brought out by contact between Jack Goff’s MG and Hunter Abbott’s Audi. The latter was forced to miss the second session due to damage, while the former was handed a reprimand and two penalty points on his licence.

In the second session, Plato shot to the head of timesheets early on, establishing a benchmark of 1m09.553s with only 10 minutes of the session gone.

It was a time that would remain unbeaten for the remainder, despite a flurry of late improvements that occurred after another red flag period, this time for Stewart Lines’ stricken Toyota.

Shedden once more went second quickest, 0.431s slower than Plato, with Jordan again third fastest, 0.581s adrift of the two-time BTCC champion. Turkington and Smith ensured an identical top five to the morning session, with Mike Bushell’s Ford climbing to a creditable sixth.

FP1 Results:

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap 1 Jason Plato Volkswagen 1m09.665 2 Gordon Shedden Honda 0.589 3 Andrew Jordan MG 0.617 4 Colin Turkington Volkswagen 0.658 5 Aron Smith Volkswagen 0.815 6 Adam Morgan Mercedes 0.945 7 Aiden Moffat Mercedes 0.995 8 Tom Ingram Toyota 1.037 9 Josh Cook Chevrolet 1.113 10 Dave Newsham Chevrolet 1.217 11 Rob Collard BMW 1.243 12 Matt Neal Honda 1.361 13 Mike Bushell Ford 1.379 14 Warren Scott Volkswagen 1.390 15 Andy Priaulx BMW 1.412 16 Rob Austin Audi 1.416 17 Sam Tordoff BMW 1.484 18 Martin Depper Honda 1.600 19 Jeff Smith Honda 1.907 20 Simon Belcher Toyota 2.211 21 Jack Goff MG 2.267 22 Alex Martin Ford 2.814 23 Kieran Gallagher Toyota 3.133 24 Andy Wilmot Proton 7.983 25 Derek Palmer Jr. Infiniti 10.638 26 Hunter Abbott Audi 13.135 27 Richard Hawken Infiniti 16.651 28 Stewart Lines Toyota no time

FP2 Results: