Brands Hatch BTCC: Colin Turkington leads Jason Plato in practice

The first session was wet, so the fastest times came in the second, which was dry until a downpour in the final minutes.

Matt Neal underlined the pace of the Honda Civic Tourer around the swoops of the GP loop by topping the times early on, before Sam Tordoff went quickest with his Triple Eight MG.

But Turkington made his mark going into the final third of the session, setting a new benchmark of 1m31.729s in the WSR BMW before the rain arrived and the red flags flew due to radio communication issues around the circuit.

Although the session restarted, the weather meant there were no improvements.

Plato was thus second, 0.4s behind the BMW, while Tordoff completed the top three.

The Hondas of Gordon Shedden (Dynamics Tourer) and Andrew Jordan (Eurotech hatchback) were next, both within one second of Turkington.

Jack Goff led the strong BMR VW CC contingent in sixth, with Adam Morgan's Ciceley Mercedes separating him from team-mates Aron Smith and Alain Menu.

With rain a constant threat, the pace in the damper opening session could be more indicative of form for qualifying, but the order of the top three was the same.

Turkington and Plato had exchanged fastest times in the closing stages of the damp-but-drying first session.

Turkington took the top spot with 1m44.007 (compared to Plato's 2013 pole in the dry of 1m31.214s), shortly before Simon Belcher's off at Druids brought a premature end to the session.

Plato's best was only 0.2s slower, with the lead duo well clear of Tordoff in the second MG, on 1m44.808s.

Outgoing champion Jordan was fourth quickest in the damp, just ahead of the works Tourer of Shedden, while Mat Jackson led the Motorbase Ford Focus attack in sixth.

PRACTICE ONE TIMES:

PRACTICE TWO TIMES:

CURRENT CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: