“So far, so good” for Honda after solid practice

Matt Neal said practice at Oulton Park had been a case of “so far, so good” for Honda after the Team Dynamics-run outfit locked out the top two places in the second session of the weekend.

With the team chasing a first victory of the BTCC season in Cheshire, Neal was narrowly beaten to top spot by team-mate Dan Cammish in the second 40 minute session, which was held in blistering track conditions some 15 degrees higher than were seen in FP1.

Speaking following the session, Neal admitted that development work carried out on the FK8 version of the Civic Type R had played a part in the strong on-track performance with improved cooling having benefited both drivers during the session.

“I think the weather has helped us,” he said. “It’s so hot out there today but it isn’t hindering us like it might be hindering some of the other teams as we have done a lot of work on cooling and have really benefitted.

“The car feels alright although the heat is hurting the tyres a bit and it will be interesting to see how qualifying goes when it might be even hotter. I think we might be the only people who haven’t run new tyres as we used some very good carry overs for that session, but it’s so far, so good.”