Mat Jackson tops shortened first free practice

Mat Jackson continued Motorbase Performance’s surge of pace as he topped first free practice at Silverstone.

With the first half of the session predominantly seeing the drivers get their cars prepared and up to temperature on a cool Northamptonshire morning, it was hard to read in to any of the early session times.

Aron Smith was the fastest from the start, being the only driver for almost a quarter of the session to dip below the 60 second lap time barrier, with Tom Ingram and Dave Newsham his closest challengers.

As the track came to the drivers and the true times began to be seen, it was Aron Smith, the returning Andy Priaulx and Josh Cook who were trading the top times. With approximately fifteen minutes to go, Mat Jackson put his head down and posted a 58.952 to jump to the top of the standings in the Ford Focus, which was expected to go well around the fast Silverstone circuit.

Late session surges from Warren Scott, Jack Goff and Dave Newsham allowed the three drivers to fill the top five positions before a red flag with three minutes to go, caused by Scott, brought the session to an early end. At the time of writing, medical crews were on the scene and were in the process of a “slow and caution extrication” after Scott cited some pain after the incident.

It was also a promising return for Tony Gilham, who placed his car in 25th at the end of the session, despite being shown the black flag at around the halfway stage.