Donington Park BTCC test: Plato leads Turkington in BMR one-two

Plato, who has switched to the BMR CC after three years in the MG line-up, outpaced 2014 champion Turkington by just 0.006 seconds.

The 2001 and '10 title winner's best time of 1m10.249s was set just before rain hit the Leicestershire track, and he survived a late flurry of track activity when the circuit dried to remain on top.

"We're in good shape," said Plato. "We know we are. The car isn't as driveable as I want it to be, it's a bit nervy, but there's lots left in it."

After an intensive pre-season programme, BMR's VWs look to have made a significant step forward from last year, with team owner Warren Scott eighth quickest, but the team's new recruits did not have it all their own way at Donington.

The duo of double champions only just shaded the Ciceley Racing-built Mercedes, with youngster Aiden Moffat 0.051s slower than Plato and outpacing race winner Adam Morgan, a frontrunner throughout the 2014 season in the new A-Class, by a mere 0.004s.

The two-by-two order continued with the two new MG recruits fifth and sixth, as Jack Goff set a best time that was 0.131s off Plato's pace but a quarter of a second better than 2013 champion Andrew Jordan managed in the second Triple Eight MG6.

Hunter Abbott was seventh quickest in his Rob Austin Racing Audi A4, ahead of Scott, Martin Depper's Eurotech Honda Civic and Sam Tordoff in the lead WSR BMW 125i M Sport.

Most drivers managed a decent amount of running during the four-hour session, though the highest-profile driver who struggled for mileage was Gordon Shedden, who managed just 11 laps in the new Honda Civic Type-R.

Race winner Aron Smith's tally was a paltry three laps after a gearbox issue with his BMR Volkswagen, while Speedworks returnee Tom Ingram spent the first half of the session in the garage in his Toyota Avensis before clocking three laps later on.

Several cars did not take part in the test, with neither Infiniti running and Motorbase absent entirely.

Dan Welch's Proton, Kieran Gallagher's Team Hard Toyota and Nicolas Hamilton's AmD Audi did not run either.

Three-time World Touring Car champion Andy Priaulx did not take part due to a clashing BMW commitment. Paul O'Neill ran his WSR BMW instead, but did not complete a significant amount of laps.

TEST TIMES:

Pos  Driver            Team/car               Time       Gap
 1.  Jason Plato       BMR VW                 1m10.249s
 2.  Colin Turkington  BMR VW                 1m10.255s  +0.006s
 3.  Aiden Moffat      Moffat Mercedes        1m10.300s  +0.051s
 4.  Adam Morgan       Ciceley Mercedes       1m10.304s  +0.055s
 5.  Jack Goff         MG                     1m10.380s  +0.131s
 6.  Andrew Jordan     MG                     1m10.625s  +0.376s
 7.  Hunter Abbott     RAR Audi               1m10.794s  +0.545s
 8.  Warren Scott      BMR VW                 1m10.829s  +0.580s
 9.  Martin Depper     Eurotech Honda         1m10.928s  +0.679s
10.  Sam Tordoff       WSR BMW                1m10.985s  +0.736s
11.  Dave Newsham      Power Maxed Chevrolet  1m11.099s  +0.850s
12.  Matt Neal         Honda                  1m11.135s  +0.886s
13.  Jeff Smith        Eurotech Honda         1m11.252s  +1.003s
14.  Rob Austin        RAR Audi               1m11.260s  +1.011s
15.  Josh Cook         Power Maxed Chevrolet  1m11.289s  +1.040s
16.  Rob Collard       WSR BMW                1m11.391s  +1.142s
17.  Mike Bushell      AmD Ford               1m11.523s  +1.274s
18.  Gordon Shedden    Honda                  1m11.796s  +1.547s
19.  Alex Martin       Parker Ford            1m12.308s  +2.059s
20.  Simon Belcher     Handy Toyota           1m12.726s  +2.477s
21.  Paul O'Neill      WSR BMW                1m14.190s  +3.941s
22.  Stewart Lines     Houseman Toyota        1m15.718s  +5.469s
23.  Andy Wilmot       Welch Proton           1m16.040s  +5.791s
24.  Tom Ingram        Speedworks Toyota      1m21.949s  +11.700s
25.  Aron Smith        BMR VW                 1m22.029s  +11.780s