Matt Neal tops rain-affected second Oulton practice

Matt Neal topped a rain-affected second British Touring Car Championship practice session at Oulton Park, ahead of a surprise showing from Subaru’s James Cole in second.

With rain having fallen almost constantly between first and second practice, teams went into the session not knowing how much grip the circuit would have. Initial times were more than ten seconds slower than those from early in the morning, with Subaru’s Ash Sutton setting the initial pace.

As drivers got used to the circuit which was initially drying out, rain started to fall again after around 5 minutes, changing the grip levels once again.

In the end the additional rain didn’t stop Honda’s Neal improving with nine minutes to go, the three-time champion putting in a lap of 1:37.051 to go just over two tenths faster than Cole, who had earlier topped the times with his wet-tyre-shod run.

BMW’s Colin Turkington was third fastest, ahead of team-mate Rob Collard in fourth, with the duo having briefly enjoyed a spell as 1-2 in the times whilst the WSR cars showed strong wet-weather pace.

Sutton ended up in fifth, ahead of MG’s Dan Lloyd in sixth and Maximum Motorsport’s Josh Cook in seventh, the latter having also enjoyed a spell at the top of the times early on.

The morning’s pace-setter, Andrew Jordan, was eighth quickest, whilst Subaru’s Jason Plato enjoyed renewed pace in ninth and Eurotech Racing’s Jeff Smith completed the top ten.

Points leader Tom Ingram was just 16^th fastest in the afternoon session, almost nine tenths off the pace, as the top 20 cars were covered by less than a second.

Reigning champion Gordon Shedden could only manage 21^st in second practice, with the Honda driver having experienced issue with his steering wheel during the session, and also an off-track excursion in his Civic.

Both Power Maxed Racing Vauxhalls struggled for pace in the conditions, with Senna Proctor in 25^th and Tom Chilton propping up the times in 32^nd, some two-and-a-half seconds off the pace.

Qualifying is scheduled to take place at 15:50 BST.

Session results

POS	NO	CL	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	25	M	Matt NEAL		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	15	1:37.051	0.000
2	20	M	James COLE		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	14	1:37.300	0.249
3	4	M	Colin TURKINGTON		Team BMW	BMW 125i M Sport	13	1:37.347	0.296
4	5	M	Rob COLLARD		Team BMW	BMW 125i M Sport	16	1:37.382	0.331
5	116	M	Ashley SUTTON		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	16	1:37.449	0.398
6	23	M	Daniel LLOYD		MG Racing RCIB Insurance	MG6GT	15	1:37.453	0.402
7	66		Josh COOK		Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport	Ford Focus	16	1:37.455	0.404
8	77	M	Andrew JORDAN		BMW Pirtek Racing	BMW 125i M Sport	14	1:37.470	0.419
9	99	M	Jason PLATO		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	14	1:37.667	0.616
10	55		Jeff SMITH		Eurotech Racing	Honda Civic Type R	14	1:37.707	0.656
11	3		Mat JACKSON		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo	Ford Focus	11	1:37.784	0.733
12	31		Jack GOFF		Eurotech Racing	Honda Civic Type R	14	1:37.789	0.738
13	11		Rob AUSTIN		Handy Motorsport	Toyota Avensis	17	1:37.836	0.785
14	30		Martin DEPPER		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo	Ford Focus	19	1:37.848	0.797
15	7		Stephen JELLEY		Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport	Ford Focus	12	1:37.877	0.826
16	80		Tom INGRAM		Speedworks Motorsport	Toyota Avensis	15	1:37.926	0.875
17	17		David NEWSHAM		BTC Norlin Racing	Chevrolet Cruze	17	1:37.998	0.947
18	16		Aiden MOFFAT		Laser Tools Racing	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	16	1:38.000	0.949
19	48		Ollie JACKSON		AmDtuning.com with CobraExhausts	Audi S3	18	1:38.012	0.961
20	22		Chris SMILEY		BTC Norlin Racing	Chevrolet Cruze	16	1:38.022	0.971
21	52	M	Gordon SHEDDEN		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	11	1:38.162	1.111
22	303	M	Matt SIMPSON		Simpson Racing	Honda Civic Type R	14	1:38.202	1.151
23	12		Mike EPPS		Autoaid / RCIB Insurance Racing	Volkswagen CC	16	1:38.250	1.199
24	40	M	Árón SMITH		MG Racing RCIB Insurance	MG6GT	17	1:38.302	1.251
25	18	M	Senna PROCTOR		Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	12	1:38.369	1.318
26	33		Adam MORGAN		Ciceley Motorsport	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	15	1:38.402	1.351
27	24		Jake HILL		TAG Racing	Volkswagen CC	17	1:38.473	1.422
28	61		Will BURNS		Autoaid / RCIB Insurance Racing	Volkswagen CC	15	1:38.649	1.598
29	28	M	Josh PRICE		BMR Racing Academy	Subaru Levorg GT	15	1:38.901	1.850
30	300		Luke DAVENPORT		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo	Ford Focus	17	1:38.904	1.853
31	10		Ant WHORTON-EALES		AmDtuning.com with CobraExhausts	Audi S3	17	1:39.018	1.967
32	2	M	Tom CHILTON		Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	14	1:39.575	2.524

Complete session results.