Adam Morgan leads damp first practice session at Silverstone
Ciceley Racing’s Adam Morgan was fastest of all in a damp and drizzly practice session at Silverstone in his Mercedes-Benz A-Class, leading an unusual top ten as the established front runners didn’t focus on lap times in the 40 minute session.
Morgan’s best time of 1:03.540 was set during the first ten minutes, before the rain set in, which prevented any major improvements during the remaining 30 minutes of the session.
Morgan was just over eight-tenths of a second faster than Ollie Jackson in the AmD Tuning Audi S3, with Mat Jackson third fastest in the re-liveried Motorbase Ford Focus ST.
Matt Simpson was fourth fastest in the Speedworks Motorsport Honda Civic, just over 1.5 seconds off the pace, with Jake Hill putting his Team Hard Toyota Avensis in fifth position.
Matt Neal was the best placed of the two factory Honda drivers, setting the tenth fastest time with just over ten minutes to go in the Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R, while team-mate Gordon Shedden set his first timed lap with just over five minutes to go, setting a time which put his Civic in 22nd position as the rain began to ease off.
A flurry of late improvements saw Warren Scott emerge as the best-placed of the four Team BMR Subaru Levorgs in 13th position, with team-mates Colin Turkington and Jason Plato down in 19th and 30th positions, while championship leader Sam Tordoff was the fastest of the three West Surrey Racing BMWs in 14th, 2.9 seconds from Morgan’s best time.
The second free practice session gets underway at 12:45 BST.
