Plato dominates first Oulton Park practice for MG
Jason Plato dominated the first British Touring Car free practice session at Oulton Park
The works MG6 driver set the pace early on in the damp session, lapping around a second faster than the field.
Mat Jackson's Motorbase Ford Focus finally overcame Plato's mark in the final quarter of an hour, only for Plato to immediately move back to the top of the timesheets with a 1m37.448s.
Having hovered around the top 10 earlier in the session, Plato's team-mate Andy Neate jumped to third with three minutes to go to make a Triple Eight one-three.
Reigning champion Matt Neal was fourth in his works Honda Civic, just 0.005s behind Neate and 0.017s faster than Andrew Jordan's Eurotech/Pirtek example.
Nick Foster was top rear-wheel-drive runner in sixth with his WSR BMW, ahead of Adam Morgan's Speedworks Toytoa Avensis, while BTCC debutant Will Bratt was 11th in his Rob Austin Racing Audi A4.
Although he completed 15 laps, Honda's Gordon Shedden did not set a competitive time and was slowest of the 22 runners.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Jason Plato Triple 8 MG 1m37.448s 2. Mat Jackson Motorbase Ford 1m37.665s + 0.217s 3. Andy Neate Triple 8 MG 1m38.432s + 0.984s 4. Matt Neal Dynamics Honda 1m38.437s + 0.989s 5. Andrew Jordan Eurotech Honda 1m38.454s + 1.006s 6. Nick Foster WSR BMW 1m38.731s + 1.283s 7. Adam Morgan Speedworks Toyota 1m38.936s + 1.488s 8. Tom Onslow-Cole WSR BMW 1m38.992s + 1.544s 9. Rob Collard WSR BMW 1m39.013s + 1.565s 10. Dave Newsham ES Vauxhall 1m39.152s + 1.704s 11. Will Bratt Austin Audi 1m39.198s + 1.750s 12. Jeff Smith Eurotech Honda 1m39.411s + 1.963s 13. Aron Smith Motorbase Ford 1m39.507s + 2.059s 14. Lea Wood Wood Vauxhall 1m39.664s + 2.216s 15. Frank Wrathall Dynojet Toyota 1m39.784s + 2.336s 16. Daniel Welch Welch Proton 1m40.208s + 2.760s 17. Tony Hughes Speedworks Toyota 1m40.496s + 3.048s 18. Ollie Jackson AmD Volkswagen 1m40.783s + 3.335s 19. Liam Griffin Motorbase Ford 1m41.248s + 3.800s 20. Tony Gilham Gilham Honda 1m41.626s + 4.178s 21. Chris James ES Vauxhall 1m41.721s + 4.273s 22. Gordon Shedden Dynamics Honda 1m44.809s + 7.361s
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