Sam Tordoff beats Aron Smith to top spot in FP2

A record 32 cars competed in FP2 at Brands Hatch as Sam Tordoff finished on top going in to the first qualifying session of the year.

Times were more representative in the opening segment than they were in FP1, with cars getting up to speed much quicker than the morning session, and Sam Tordoff the first driver to come close to a 48 second lap.

Tordoff and his BMW team-mate Jack Goff traded the top spot with Honda’s Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden throughout the majority of the session, before Tom Ingram returned to the top spot he occupied in FP1.

A late session charge from Aron Smith saw the former Team BMR driver, in the former Team BMR car, take the top spot, but only held it for a couple of minutes before Sam Tordoff took the top time of 48.132 and to end the session in first position.

Team BMR continued their development of the Subaru Levorg, with Colin Turkington once again the fastest of the four drivers, ending the session in 19th, but not quite matching his pace in FP1. Jason Plato was three tenths behind Turkington, with Warren Scott and James Cole a further two tenths back.

Mike Epps, who missed the first session with a power steering issue, made his BTCC debut with 25th, one and a half seconds behind Tordoff’s fastest time.

Motorbase Performance’s FP2 went better than its morning endeavours, with Andrew Jordan in eighth and Mat Jackson in 10th, while the Triple Eight pairing of Ash Sutton and Josh Cook continued to impress with seventh and ninth respectively.