Josh Cook heads wet-to-dry first practice at Brands Hatch

Triple Eight Racing’s Josh Cook headed a string of late improvers to top the first free practice session of the BTCC finale at Brands Hatch, with title contender Mat Jackson in second.

A flurry of quicker times were set towards the end of the session, with Cook taking his MG 6GT to a best time of 1.40.042 on the greasy surface in the final two minutes.

Motorbase Performance’s Jackson was also a late improver, finishing 0.366 behind Cook in his Ford Focus ST, with Handy Motorsport’s Rob Austin in third in his Toyota Avensis.

AmD Tuning’s Ollie Jackson was fourth, having briefly topped the times in the final five minutes, with Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram and the Team Hard pair of Michael Epps and Jake Hill next up, making it four Toyotas in the top 10.

Ciceley Racing’s Adam Morgan was eighth ahead of the second of the title contenders Rob Collard in his West Surrey Racing BMW 125i, with Eurotech Racing’s Jeff Smith rounding out the top 10.

Of the other drivers in the title battle, leader Sam Tordoff was 13th; Gordon Shedden was 16th; Matt Neal 14th; Andrew Jordan 21st; Colin Turkington 19th and Jason Plato 25th.

The session started under cloudy skies with a fair amount of drizzle, although this began to relent around the 20 minute mark as sunshine began to break through the clouds.

Despite the conditions it was a largely trouble-free session, with Power Maxed Racing’s Hunter Abbott a minor exception as he took a trip through the gravel at Paddock Hill Bend.

The conditions could prove to be an indicator of things to come, with mixed conditions also expected to hit the circuit around the time of this afternoon’s qualifying session.