Alex MacDowall leads Chevrolet 1-2 in FP2

Chevrolet driver Alex MacDowall was the fastest driver in the second and final practice session at Snetterton, setting the best time of 1:59.025, less than four-tenths of a second ahead of his team-mate Jason Plato.

MacDowall’s fastest lap came in the final moments, after Plato had lead for the last half of the 40 minute practice, with MacDowall going off the circuit on his previous run at Oggies.

The top placed turbocharged car was that of James Nash’s Triple Eight Race Engineering Vauxhall Vectra in third, who was also the fastest independent driver.

Chris James was out of the session early on after an unsecured rear-right wheel came loose on his Team ES Racing Chevrolet Lacetti, and didn’t set a time in the session.

Despite the quick pace of the normally aspirated RML-run Chevrolets, the next closest NA car was that of Rob Collard’s West Surrey Racing BMW down in 13th.

Paul O’Neill’s Tech-Speed Motorsport Chevrolet Cruze also stopped out on the circuit, limiting the 31-year-old’s running in the session.

There was further progress for the new drivers to the BTCC this weekend. Martin Byford got the Volkswagen Golf of AmD Milltek Racing into the top ten, just over a second down on MacDowall’s time. Dan Welch meanwhile found further pace in the new Proton Gen-2 and was almost three seconds faster in FP2 than he was in FP1, finishing up in 24th place.

Qualifying takes place at 15:45 BST.