Mat Jackson leads second practice at Silverstone

Motorbase Performance driver Mat Jackson was fastest in second Free Practice ahead of Special Tuning Racing’s Dave Newsham, whilst 19 drivers received warnings for cutting Copse and six drivers were black flagged in the session.

Mat Jackson set the pace early on with a lap of 59.700, which was later bettered by reigning Renault Clio Cup Champion Dave Newsham’s SEAT León with a time of 59.635. Newsham’s lap was equally impressive as it was faster than Tom Onslow-Cole’s pole position record in the Arena Ford Focus ST last season.

Mat Jackson then again improved in the final five minutes of the session with a time of 59.627 to end the session fastest.

Gordon Shedden was the fastest of the Hondas in third, though bizarrely the Scotsman was black flagged just before the end of the session as the stewards implemented a ‘four strikes’ rule against drivers who were cutting the track at the first corner at Copse, with drivers given three laps before they’re shown the black and white unsportsmanlike behaviour flag, with the black flag following on the fourth lap.

Also black flagged from the session were Triple Eight’s Ollie Jackson, Tech-Speed’s John George, Chevrolet’s Alex MacDowall, STR’s Tom Boardman and Eurotech Racing’s Jeff Smith.

19 drivers in total were warned at least once for cutting Copse, with those who weren’t warned being James Thompson, Matt Neal, Jason Plato, Rob Austin, James Nash, Nick Foster, Tony Gilham, Dan Welch, Tony Hughes & Martin Byford.

Championship leader Matt Neal was fourth fastest, 0.127s down on Jackson with Jason Plato down in 13th place, 0.573s back.

29 cars took part in the session with John Thorne’s Vauxhall Insignia set to miss today’s action as the team work on getting the car ready to start from the back on race day.

Qualifying takes place at 15:10 BST.