Jackson on top again in Brands test

Fresh from going fastest at Rockingham last week, Jackson, 26, again looked good in his BMW Dealer Team UK-run machine, but he saved his best till last as he dipped under Yvan Muller¹s pole position time from 2001 with a lap of 48.873 seconds.

His time put him just over two hundredths of a second clear of defending champion Fabrizio Giovanardi, who had a mixed day in his Vauxhall. The Italian nudged the barriers at Clearways during the morning and then beached his Vectra in the gravel later on.

He still managed to recover though to set a time that bounced the Team RAC BMW of Colin Turkington to third place. The Team Halfords Honda of teammate Tom Chilton was moved down to fourth place with just a few minutes of the session to go.

Matt Neal and Tom Onslow-Cole made it all three Vauxhalls in the top five on the timesheets, giving a taste of what the order might look like when the championship kicks off at the same circuit in ten days time.

SEAT continued to struggle with Darren Turner and Jason Plato down in eighth and ninth overall as both ran in the new Leon TDi simultaneously for the first time. They then stayed out on track longer than most after the chequered flag was flown in order to get in some practice starts.

The most ominous signs came from the Turkington. The Ulsterman was among the front-runners all day, but cut short his programme an hour early with the team not wishing to get into a qualifying battle.

Nineteen cars were on track during the day, with the Robertshaw Racing team being frustrated as Harry Vaulkhard, Matt Allison and Alan Taylor all ended up off the circuit.

Pos  Driver                Make        Time
 1.  Mat Jackson           BMW         48.873
 2.  Fabrizio Giovanardi   Vauxhall    48.894
 3.  Colin Turkington      BMW         48.954
 4.  Tom Chilton           Honda       49.005
 5.  Matt Neal             Vauxhall    49.069
 6.  Tom Onslow-Cole       Vauxhall    49.150
 7.  Andrew Jordan         Honda       49.152
 8.  Matt Allison          Chevrolet   49.158
 9.  Darren Turner         SEAT        49.195
10.  Jason Plato           SEAT        49.200
11.  Gordon Shedden        Honda       49.232
12.  Stephen Jelley        BMW         49.268
13.  Mike Jordan           Honda       49.313
14.  Rob Collard           BMW         49.317
15.  Steven Kane           BMW         49.435
16.  Harry Vaulkhard       Chevrolet   49.865
17.  John George           Honda       50.346
18.  Alan Taylor           Honda       50.541
19.  Martyn Bell           Vauxhall    51.289