Honda’s Gordon Shedden was fastest in Donington Park’s first BTCC practice session, posting a time of 1:10.595 to beat fellow works drivers Matt Neal, Sam Tordoff and Jason Plato to the quickest time.
Click here for the full first practice times.
Shedden’s time was postest during the second half of the session and was just under 0.250 seconds slower than the pace set during the media day at Donington in March.
Starting his 500th BTCC race this weekend, Shedden’s team-mate Matt Neal was second fastest, just 0.008 seconds slower under glorious blue skies.
MG’s Sam Tordoff and Jason Plato were third and fourth fastest respectively. Plato spent much of the first half of first practice failing to set a competitive time before getting some clean laps under his belt during the second half of the 40-minute session.
Pirtek Racing’s Andrew Jordan was fifth fastest, having earlier topped the times at the mid-way point. Adam Morgan was an impressive sixth in the Ciceley Racing Dynojet Toyota.
In only the car’s second weekend of racing, Tom Onslow-Cole posted the 13th fastest lap in his Volkswagen Passat CC – although he suffered problems with a broken brake line later in the session, preventing him from improving his time further.
Second practice takes place at 12:30 GMT (13:30 CET).