Mat Jackson set the pace in the second free practice session for the British Touring Car Championship at Silverstone, firing a warning shot to his championship rivals.
Following on from the Airwaves Racing driver’s strong performance in the first session, in which he was second quickest, Jackson went on to improve his time and set a lap of 59.627 seconds to go just eight thousandths of a second faster than second-placed Dave Newsham.
Click here for the full second practice times.
Newsham’s second place was his best-ever practice session performance in the BTCC. Gordon Shedden was third fastest for the Honda Racing team, just over a tenth slower than Jackson. His team-mate and current championship leader Matt Neal was the fourth fastest driver around the Silverstone National circuit.
Improving by almost a second on his time earlier in the morning, Tom Boardman was the fifth fastest to end a strong session for the Special Tuning Racing squad.
It was another strong session for the Ford entires, with Tom Chilton sixth and team-mate Andy Neate seventh for Team Aon.
James Nash was eighth fastest despite feeling ill during the session, with Tom Onslow-Cole ninth and Ollie Jackson completing the top ten on his second weekend in the BTCC. Nash will be looking to hold on to the lead he has in the Independents Championship but with Jackson having a strong session Nash will be hoping for a stronger qualifying session.
It was a difficult session for the Silverline Chevrolet team as championship protagonist Jason Plato could only manage 13th and his team-mate Alex MacDowall 18th. In between the two was Paul O’Neill in the Independent GoMobileUK.com Chevrolet, who will be out to help Plato as much as possible this weekend.