Photo: PSP Images

Plato on top at Donington Park in first free practice

By

Championship leader Jason Plato set the pace around Donington Park, ahead of Mat Jackson and Gordon Shedden.

Plato set a best lap of 1:11.842 to finish ahead of the Airwaves BMW driver, after Honda’s Gordon Shedden was on top for most of the session.

The Team Aon Ford Focus of Tom Chilton was fifth, just behind Matt Neal – with Tom Boardman’s Special Tuning UK, now back running the standard S2000 SEAT engine an impressive sixth.

The field appeared to be split into two groups, with the top 13 cars all within one second of Jason Plato, the rest of the pack was over 1.7s down in the first of two practice sessions.

James Kaye, in his first BTCC practice session since 2006 was 16th fastest, second fastest of the four Integra’s.

Central Group Racing’s Lea Wood and Forster Motorsport’s Martin Depper didn’t complete a timed lap in the session.