Sam Tordoff pips Aron Smith to top second practice

Sam Tordoff set the pace in the second free practice session ahead of this weekends opening round of the 2016 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, with the JCT600 with GardX driver clocking a blistering 48.132 around the Indy circuit ahead of Aron Smith in the Team BKR CC.

The theme of the session was ever changing lap times and Smith, the surprise of the session, led the timesheets for a period before Tordoff’s BMW went faster. Tom Ingram, who was fastest in the morning session, finished third.

The initial pace-setter after five minutes was rookie Matt Simpson, though the Speedworks Motorsport driver was quickly usurped by the usual suspects as the times began to tumble.

Jack Goff held the top of the timesheets for a matter of seconds before team-mate Sam Tordoff set a 48.883 to claim the top spot in the sister BMW 125i M-Sport.

There were moments for Depper, Jordan and Martin at Graham Hill bend and Clearways respectively, whilst Ashley Sutton, who set the fourth fastest time this morning, also made a trip through the gravel at Paddock. Rob Collard, who finished third this morning, was left frustrated after a misfire restricted him to the pit lane for the majority of the session and he managed just seven laps.

It was another session for Team BMR to learn in their new Subaru Levorgs, with Turkington finishing 19th and Plato 23rd, though they are expected to be at the sharp end come qualifying.

Despite some surprise results in practice, qualifying this afternoon is sure to feature the usual suspects, but can anybody cause an upset? Live coverage on TouringCars.net starts at 15:30.

Session results

POS	NO	CL	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	600		Sam TORDOFF		Team JCT600 with GardX	BMW 125i M Sport	25	48.132	0.000
2	40		Árón SMITH		BKR	Volkswagen CC	20	48.296	0.164
3	80	M	Tom INGRAM		Speedworks Motorsport	Toyota Avensis	32	48.349	0.217
4	52	M	Gordon SHEDDEN		Honda Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	30	48.409	0.277
5	33		Adam MORGAN		WIX Racing	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	28	48.484	0.352
6	25		Matt NEAL		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	24	48.499	0.367
7	116		Ashley SUTTON		MG Racing RCIB Insurance	MG6GT	31	48.539	0.407
8	77		Andrew JORDAN		Motorbase Performance	Ford Focus	33	48.612	0.480
9	66	M	Josh COOK		MG Racing RCIB Insurance	MG6GT	32	48.647	0.515
10	7	C	Mat JACKSON		Motorbase Performance	Ford Focus	28	48.669	0.537
11	31	G	Jack GOFF		Team IHG Rewards Club	BMW 125i M Sport	29	48.682	0.550
12	53		Hunter ABBOTT		Power Maxed Racing	Chevrolet Cruze	24	48.787	0.655
13	30	M	Martin DEPPER		Eurotech Racing	Honda Civic Type R	31	48.804	0.672
14	55		Jeff SMITH		Eurotech Racing	Honda Civic Type R	10	48.839	0.707
15	57		Andy NEATE		Honda Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	30	48.859	0.727
16	24		Jake HILL		RCIB Insurance Racing	Toyota Avensis	37	48.941	0.809
17	16		Aiden MOFFAT		Laser Tools Racing	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	28	48.980	0.848
18	11	C	Rob AUSTIN		Handy Motorsport	Toyota Avensis	36	49.129	0.997
19	4		Colin TURKINGTON		Subaru Team BMR	Subaru Levorg GT	26	49.160	1.028
20	14		Alex MARTIN		Dextra Racing with Team Parker	Ford Focus	31	49.173	1.041
21	48		Ollie JACKSON		AmD Tuning	Audi S3	27	49.267	1.135
22	303		Matt SIMPSON		Speedworks Motorsport	Honda Civic Type R	32	49.384	1.252
23	99		Jason PLATO		Subaru Team BMR	Subaru Levorg GT	27	49.483	1.351
24	22		Chris SMILEY		TLC Racing	Toyota Avensis	29	49.491	1.359
25	12		Mike EPPS		RCIB Insurance Racing	Toyota Avensis	24	49.635	1.503
26	17		Dan WELCH		Goodestone Racing	Proton Persona	20	49.664	1.532
27	39		Warren SCOTT		Subaru Team BMR	Subaru Levorg GT	29	49.669	1.537
28	20		James COLE		Subaru Team BMR	Subaru Levorg GT	33	49.713	1.581
29	95		Stewart LINES		Maximum Motorsport	Ford Focus	25	50.213	2.081
30	38	M	Mark HOWARD		BKR	Volkswagen CC	37	50.402	2.270
31	84		Kelvin FLETCHER		Power Maxed Racing	Chevrolet Cruze	13	50.575	2.443
32	100	C	Rob COLLARD		Team JCT600 with GardX	BMW 125i M Sport	11	52.610	4.478

Complete session results.