Team BMR’s Jason Plato was fastest in the first British Touring Car Championship practice session at Donington Park, ahead of Gordon Shedden and Andrew Jordan.
Plato, who was fastest at the circuit during the series’ official pre-season test last month, again led the way with a best time of 1:09.665s, more than half a second clear of the Honda of Shedden.
The session was interrupted by a red flag period, after joint-championship leader Jack Goff and Hunter Abbott collided on the entry to the chicane at the end of the lap.
In a slow start to the session, Team HARD.’s Kieran Gallagher was the first to set a time, although his 1:31.904s was far from representative.
Sam Tordoff then started the process of lowering the lap time, and with the help of Tom Ingram times quickly fell into the 1:11s barrier, before Andrew Jordan moved to the front with a succession of 1:10s laps.
Track activity increased towards the mid-point of the session, with the Mercedes of Aiden Moffat and Adam Morgan repeating their impressive pace from the pre-season test, before the red flag was shown.
Goff, who had been on a flying lap, caught Abbott’s – who had been warming his tyres – rear as they approached the braking zone at the end of the back straight, causing substantial damage to the latter’s Audi A4 and the eventual showing of the red flag.
Goff was able to continue to the end of the lap, and despite immediately entering the pits, managed to set what was then his fastest time of the session.
Ten minutes remained when the session restarted, and after a brief lull in action it was Plato who jumped to the top of the times with a 1:10.224s – which was quicker than his best effort from March’s pre-season test – with Shedden jumping into third.
Plato then went faster again to chart the pace-setting time, while team-mate Colin Turkington briefly went third before Shedden displaced him to move into second spot.
With erstwhile leader Jordan in third, Turkington held onto the fourth fastest time, ahead of the third BMR Volkswagen of Árón Smith. Morgan and Moffat ended up in sixth and seventh ahead of Ingram, while the two Power Maxed Racing Chevrolet Cruzes of Josh Cook and Dave Newsham completed the top ten.
Richard Hawken completed his first running in the second Infiniti Q50 with nine laps, although he was slowest of the 27 cars to take to the circuit, with Stewart Lines and Dan Welch both sitting the session out.
Top times
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 99 | Jason PLATO |  |
Team BMR | Volkswagen CC | 15 | 1:09.665 | 0.000 | |
| 2 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 1:10.254 | 0.589 |
| 3 | 77 | M | Andrew JORDAN | |
MG 888 Racing | MG 6GT | 21 | 1:10.282 | 0.617 |
| 4 | 1 | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Team BMR | Volkswagen CC | 18 | 1:10.323 | 0.658 | |
| 5 | 40 | Árón SMITH |  |
Team BMR | Volkswagen CC | 18 | 1:10.480 | 0.815 | |
| 6 | 33 | Adam MORGAN | |
WIX Racing | Mercedes Benz A-Class | 21 | 1:10.610 | 0.945 | |
| 7 | 16 | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes Benz A-Class | 19 | 1:10.660 | 0.995 | |
| 8 | 80 | Tom INGRAM | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 19 | 1:10.702 | 1.037 | |
| 9 | 66 | Josh COOK | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 18 | 1:10.778 | 1.113 | |
| 10 | 17 | Dave NEWSHAM | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 20 | 1:10.882 | 1.217 | |
| 11 | 6 | C | Rob COLLARD | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 18 | 1:10.908 | 1.243 |
| 12 | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 19 | 1:11.026 | 1.361 |
| 13 | 21 | Mike BUSHELL | |
AmD Tuning.com | Ford Focus | 17 | 1:11.044 | 1.379 | |
| 14 | 39 | Warren SCOTT | |
Team BMR | Volkswagen CC | 19 | 1:11.055 | 1.390 | |
| 15 | 111 | C | Andy PRIAULX | |
Team IHG Rewards Club | BMW 125i M Sport | 20 | 1:11.077 | 1.412 |