Sam Tordoff beat teammate Jason Plato to the fastest time in the second British Touring Car Championship practice session at Silverstone, with championship leader Colin Turkington completing the top three.
Tordoff set his time – a 58.624s – in the closing stages of the session and at the busiest point as the majority of the field took to the track for one last effort after Warren Scott brought a red flag out with five minutes to go. The MG man usurped his teammate Plato with just a minute left on the clock, before being black flagged a lap later.
More cars than usual stayed out after the initial sighter laps as the second session got underway, and in stark contrast to first practice, drivers got down to business from the off, with Plato immediately breaking the one-minute mark with an effort of 58.957s.
Tordoff and Mat Jackson in his Airwaves Racing Ford Focus also snuck under the minute mark early on as Plato further improved to a 58.823s, before reigning champion Andrew Jordan moved into second on a 59.092s lap.
By the halfway stage 22 cars were within a second of the pace-setting lap time, the last of whom, Aiden Moffat, found himself barred from the remainder of the session after receiving a black flag – a fate that Chris Stockton also suffered.
Turkington had been quiet during the opening 25 minutes in his eBay Motors BMW but burst into action as a lap of 59.028s moved him up to second. While the top two in the championship in the top two places at this point, Gordon Shedden found himself with work to do as he could only improve to 13th (from 18th), eventually finishing the session a place lower with plenty of work to do before qualifying.
It was then, with six minutes to go, that the red flag was flown to recover the stricken Volkswagen CC of Warren Scott, who had suffered a front-left tyre puncture, but with the car swiftly removed, three minutes remained as the track went green once more, allowing the drivers one last effort to improve their positions.
And Tordoff took full advantage of the opportunity to jump ahead of Plato, ultimately finishing with a time 0.010s slower than the latter’s benchmark time from first practice, before receiving a black flag on his last lap.
With Turkington third, Aron Smith made a late burst of his own to claim fourth, having recorded the fastest speed through the traps, while Jackson continued his good start to the weekend with fifth. Jack Goff, Jordan, Marc Hynes in the third MG, Matt Neal and Rob Austin, who rounded out the top ten.
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 88 | M | Sam TORDOFF |  |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 23 | 58.624 | |
| 2 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 22 | 58.823 | 0.199 |
| 3 | 5 | I | Colin TURKINGTON | |
eBay Motors | BMW 125i M Sport | 25 | 58.985 | 0.361 |
| 4 | 40 | I | Árón SMITH |  |
CHROME Edition Restart Racing | Volkswagen CC | 21 | 59.071 | 0.447 |
| 5 | 6 | I | Mat JACKSON | |
Airwaves Racing | Ford Focus ST | 24 | 59.085 | 0.461 |
| 6 | 31 | I | Jack GOFF | |
CHROME Edition Restart Racing | Volkswagen CC | 24 | 59.087 | 0.463 |
| 7 | 1 | I | Andrew JORDAN | |
Pirtek Racing | Honda Civic | 23 | 59.092 | 0.468 |
| 8 | 888 | I | Marc HYNES | |
Quantel Bifold Racing | MG6 | 24 | 59.161 | 0.537 |
| 9 | 4 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Tourer | 25 | 59.174 | 0.550 |
| 10 | 101 | I | Rob AUSTIN | |
Exocet Racing | Audi A4 | 28 | 59.178 | 0.554 |