Alain Menu was the fastest man in a stop-start first practice ahead of this weekend’s British Touring Car Championship meeting at Snetterton, beating Jack Goff and Tom Ingram.
Menu was the only man to dip under the two-minute barrier with a best lap of 1:59.701s, as two red flags – the second of which was caused by Andrew Jordan and resulted in the session ending early – limited any meaningful running on the Norfolk circuit.
Heavy rain overnight had left the circuit damp as the cars headed out of the pitlane at 09:25, but the initial 26 cars who went out were all comfortable on dry tyres.
The initial pacesetting laps from Marc Hynes and Mat Jackson were nearly 15 seconds slower than Jason Plato’s 2013 pole time of 1:57.870s, as drivers were slow to get going.
Sam Tordoff had lowered the pace to a 2:09.295s before the first red flag was waved twelve minutes in, after Robb Holland stopped on the outside of Riches.
Some ten minutes passed before the session got going again, and Dave Newsham started the process of lowering the lap times, as he first set a 2:04.338s before improving to a 2:03.169s.
A Ford Focus 1-2-3 briefly broke out as Mat Jackson and Fabrizio Giovanardi jumped ahead of the satellite AmD Tuning machine, before Newsham jumped back ahead with a 2:01.250s.
With times eventually lowering throughout the field, Goff took the opportunity to try his new Volkswagen Passat in anger and set a 2:00.244.
Top ten times
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 9 | I | Alain MENU |  |
CHROME Edition Restart Racing | Volkswagen CC | 6 | 1:59.701 | |
| 2 | 31 | I | Jack GOFF |  |
CHROME Edition Restart Racing | Volkswagen CC | 8 | 2:00.244 | 0.543 |
| 3 | 80 | I | Tom INGRAM | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 8 | 2:00.280 | 0.579 |
| 4 | 1 | I | Andrew JORDAN | |
Pirtek Racing | Honda Civic | 7 | 2:00.374 | 0.673 |
| 5 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Tourer | 8 | 2:00.672 | 0.971 |
| 6 | 20 | I | James COLE | |
United Autosports | Toyota Avensis | 8 | 2:01.119 | 1.418 |
| 7 | 17 | I | Dave NEWSHAM | |
AmD Tuning.com | Ford Focus ST | 9 | 2:01.250 | 1.549 |
| 8 | 101 | I | Rob AUSTIN | |
Exocet Racing | Audi A4 | 8 | 2:01.365 | 1.664 |
| 9 | 39 | I | Warren SCOTT | |
CHROME Edition Restart Racing | Volkswagen CC | 8 | 2:01.441 | 1.740 |
| 10 | 4 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Tourer | 9 | 2:01.503 | 1.802 |