Jason Plato topped the opening practice of the 2014 British Touring Car Championship, leading a trail of series champions in a tightly-contested session.
Plato was the only man to dip underneath Andrew Jordan’s pole time of 48.387s from last year, although the times were incredibly close throughout the field, with the top 13 cars all lapping below the 49s mark and everyone down to Martin Depper in 22nd covered by less than a second.
Most teams got straight down to action when the session started at 10:00 am, with Airwaves’ Mat Jack setting the initial pace before reigning champion Andrew Jordan moved to the front, alongside rival Gordon Shedden.
The session was stopped just before the halfway point after a pit lane incident, where it is believed that a West Surrey Racing mechanic fell off the pit wall. He was quickly seen to by the medical team and taken away in an ambulance.
When the session resumed, most drivers opted for a couple of extra sighting laps before hitting the hammer again, with Plato and his teammate Sam Tordoff both improving to climb into the top six.
Plato continued his progress, moving into second before eclipsing Jordan at the top of the pile, a 48.351s giving him a lap time that would not be toppled for the remaining 15 minutes.
Turkington snuck into second place in the session, marginally beating Jordan with a 48.530s, while Matt Neal jumped up to fourth in the closing stages, having been relatively quiet throughout practice.
Adam Morgan was next up, while perhaps the surprise result was the pace of the BMR Restart Passat’s, with Aron Smith in sixth and Alain Menu in tenth, despite the latter’s claims that the team were behind their schedule in testing.
The teammates were split by a resurgent Rob Collard as well as Sam Tordoff and Gordon Shedden. Rob Austin was 11th fastest from Jack Goff, while Tom Ingram put in a stellar performance in his first BTCC session to claim 13th.
The Airwaves cars struggled as the early leader Jackson slipped to 15th, one place ahead of the returning Fabrizio Giovanardi. Satellite operation Crabbies Racing and Jack Clarke finished in 24th, one place behind the other Ford Focus of Dave Newsham.
After the announcement earlier in the day that Dan Welch’s Proton would not be ready in time to compete this weekend, Welch Motorsport’s other driver Ollie Jackson was the only competitor not to set a time during the session.
Top ten times
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO |  |
MG KX Clubcard Fuelsave | MG6 | 29 | 48.354 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 5 | I | Colin TURKINGTON | |
eBay Motors | BMW 125i M Sport | 30 | 48.530 | 0.176 |
| 3 | 1 | I | Andrew JORDAN | |
Pirtek Racing | Honda Civic | 35 | 48.557 | 0.203 |
| 4 | 4 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Tourer | 29 | 48.627 | 0.273 |
| 5 | 33 | I | Adam MORGAN | |
WIX Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 29 | 48.684 | 0.330 |
| 6 | 40 | I | Árón SMITH |  |
CHROME Edition Restart Racing | Volkswagen Passat CC | 31 | 48.783 | 0.429 |
| 7 | 10 | I | Rob COLLARD | |
eBay Motors | BMW 125i M Sport | 32 | 48.787 | 0.433 |
| 8 | 88 | M | Sam TORDOFF | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 34 | 48.809 | 0.455 |
| 9 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Tourer | 37 | 48.865 | 0.511 |
| 10 | 9 | I | Alain MENU |  |
CHROME Edition Restart Racing | Volkswagen Passat CC | 19 | 48.884 | 0.530 |