Jason Plato was quickest in the weekend’s opening British Touring Car Championship practice session, beating championship rivals Gordon Shedden and Colin Turkington for the fastest time.
Plato has largely been expected to dominate the weekend’s running, but he was cautious to show his hand early on as he took until 25 minutes into the session to start his competitive running.
Nick Foster was the first man to set a time in the session, staying out in his eBay Motors BMW as the MGs and Hondas returned to the pits following their exploratory laps.
With times in the 1:04s – 1:06s band, it took a lap from Plato’s teammate Sam Tordoff to get anywhere close to a representative time in the opening ten minutes of the session, as he posted a 1:00.212s before breaking the one minute barrier with a 59.302s.
A spate of fast laps then followed from the BMR Restart pair of Árón Smith and Warren Scott, with the former usurping Tordoff at the top of the times with a 58.780s, and after Scott moved into second, there was a brief moment where the team held a 1-2-4-5 on the timing screens, with Alain Menu and Jack Goff joining in the action.
That was ended however as Shedden went fastest 15 minutes into the session with a 58.722s, and he lowered that to his session-best time of 58.685s shortly before the halfway mark, with Turkington slotting into second with a 58.773s.
But Plato – who had been relatively anonymous in 16th – soon made his own move to the top of the times, just eclipsing Shedden’s time with a 58.675s, before shaving another six-tenths-of-a-second from his time for the session’s best.
Smith retained his fourth place with his earlier effort, with teammate Menu grabbing fifth having set a later time of 58.808s. Early pacesetter Tordoff ended the session in sixth, ahead of Adam Morgan, Mat Jackson, Scott and Matt Neal – whose Team Dynamics squad were handed a suspended fine and licence removal following comments he made after the Rockingham race weekend.
The top 20 cars were all covered by less than a second, while further down the order, Luke Hines recorder the 25th fastest time in his United Autosports Toyota Avensis, 1.655s off the pace.
Practice Two gets underway at 12:25 BST.
Session results
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO |  |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 23 | 58.614 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Tourer | 22 | 58.695 | 0.081 |
| 3 | 5 | I | Colin TURKINGTON | |
eBay Motors | BMW 125i M Sport | 23 | 58.773 | 0.159 |
| 4 | 40 | I | Árón SMITH |  |
CHROME Edition Restart Racing | Volkswagen CC | 20 | 58.780 | 0.166 |
| 5 | 9 | I | Alain MENU |  |
CHROME Edition Restart Racing | Volkswagen CC | 22 | 58.808 | 0.194 |
| 6 | 88 | M | Sam TORDOFF | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 19 | 58.897 | 0.283 |
| 7 | 33 | I | Adam MORGAN | |
WIX Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 26 | 59.048 | 0.434 |
| 8 | 6 | I | Mat JACKSON | |
Airwaves Racing | Ford Focus ST | 24 | 59.121 | 0.507 |
| 9 | 39 | I | Warren SCOTT | |
CHROME Edition Restart Racing | Volkswagen CC | 23 | 59.132 | 0.518 |
| 10 | 4 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Tourer | 23 | 59.142 | 0.528 |