Sam Tordoff leaves it late to top second Silverstone practice
A late dash from Sam Tordoff saw him top the times in the second free practice session at Silverstone, leading a Triple Eight one-two ahead of team-mate Jason Plato.
Tordoff set his best time of 58.624 with just over a minute to go, toppling long-time pacesetter Plato by 0.199 seconds, with West Surrey Racing’s Colin Turkington 0.361 back in third.
Aron Smith maintained his morning form to set the fourth fastest time ahead of Motorbase Performance’s Mat Jackson, with Smith’s Team BMR colleague Jack Goff another late improver in sixth.
Andrew Jordan, Marc Hynes, Matt Neal and Rob Austin rounded out the top 10, in another extremely tight session.
This time, 19 cars were covered by a second, with title contender Gordon Shedden down in 14th despite only being 0.604 off the ultimate pace.
The session took place in beautiful late summer conditions, with the warmer temperatures meaning times were slower than those seen in the morning.
And for much of the 40 minutes, proceedings ran to form, with Plato setting two times good enough to lead the standings before Tordoff’s lap.
There was a brief red flag with seven minutes to go after Warren Scott stopped with a front left puncture on the outside of Copse, while the returning Luke Hines was hobbled by a throttle problem in the early stages and could only post the 30th fastest time.
The start of the session was delayed to allow tyre barriers at Brooklands to be removed, following a number of complaints from drivers after first practice. Extra judges were posted at the corner to check for track limits infringements.
