Andrew Jordan was pleased to top the opening British Touring Car Championship practice of the weekend at Rockingham despite experiencing vibrations on the Pirtek-backed Ford Focus ST.
Jordan, whose fastest time of 1:23.045 around the 1.94 International Super Sports Car circuit saw him top the timesheets ahead of Tom Ingram and Adam Morgan, came despite the 2013 champion completing just two flying laps across the disrupted forty minute session.
Tarzan hairpin saw a hat-trick of red flag stoppages in first practice, the most high profile of which was championship leader Sam Tordoff amid difficult conditions and a full quota of success ballast. The Team.HARD duo of Michael Epps and Jake Hill completed the dramas.
Jordan admitted that his own running had been geared towards resolving a vibration problem on the Motorbase-run Ford, and was happy to still finish the session fastest regardless.
“We only did two flying laps and there’s a vibration on the car so we’re trying to get to the bottom of it,” said Jordan.
“We limited running and just stuck to the two so we could solve the issue but the car felt good out there.”
However, he remained coy in his chances of fighting for pole position later this afternoon, with three strong results being vital this weekend to ensure his championship challenge survives to the next round at Silverstone, and to Brands Hatch beyond that.
“It’s early days – you don’t know what others are doing with tyres so it doesn’t mean too much overall really, as ever.”
The second free practice session gets underway at 12:00 this afternoon, with live text commentary available via TouringCars.net.