Jason Plato tops wet first practice session at Silverstone
Team BMR Subaru’s Jason Plato left it to the final moments of the first free practice session at Silverstone to go fastest, deposing team-mate Ash Sutton by just over two-tenths of a second.
The session took place in damp conditions after overnight rain at the Northamptonshire circuit, with the track slowly drying during the 40 minutes.
BTC Racing’s Dave Newsham led the way for the first half of the session in his Chevrolet Cruze, before Michael Epps then led the third quarter of the session.
With just under ten minutes to go, and as the session started to dry out, the cars switched to the Dunlop slick tyre, with championship leader Ash Sutton going fastest with a time of 1:05.989, which was topped by Plato just as the chequered flag was out.
Behind the two Subarus was Epps’ Volkswagen, with Senna Proctor making a late improvement to go fourth in the Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra, with Brett Smith fifth in the Eurotech Honda Civic.
A number of drivers were warned for exceeding track limits, including Proctor, Eurotech Racing’s Jack Goff, Subaru’s Ash Sutton, Motorbase Performance’s Mat Jackson and Speedworks driver Tom Ingram.
There was a minor drama for West Surrey Racing BMW’s Colin Turkington early in the session, missing ten minutes due to an electrical problem, but was able to take part in the last half of the session and finished tenth.
BTCC returnee Rob Huff finished in 25th position in the Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra, nine-tenths off the pace. The WTCC regular is carrying 45kg of ballast as a late-entry penalty.
The next session takes place at 12:05 BST.
