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BTCC Brands Hatch: WSR's Jordan leads Tordoff in first practice

WSR's Andrew Jordan topped the first free practice session of the 2019 British Touring Car Championship, narrowly edging out pre-season testing pacesetter Sam Tordoff at Brands Hatch

Driving the brand new BMW 330i M Sport, Jordan set the pace at 48.034 seconds to beat Tordoff by 0.057s in a session where 26 of the 30-car field were covered by less than a second.

It looked as though different guises of Honda Civic would take a cleansweep of the top three, as AmD Tuning driver Tordoff - using in the previous generation FK2 Type R - headed the Team Dynamics factory FK8 of Dan Cammish and BTC Racing driver Chris Smiley at the halfway stage.

As the Civic dominated early-on, the fastest rear-wheel drive car was the Subaru Levorg GT of Team BMR's Ashley Sutton in fourth place until Jordan went top.

Jordan ended up more than three tenths faster than his WSR team-mates, with Tom Oliphant in 12th, one spot ahead of reigning champion Colin Turkington.

Matt Neal took fourth from Sutton, who ultimately fell to sixth and was 0.255s off Jordan.

Defending independents drivers' champion Tom Ingram piloted the brand new Toyota GB-backed Speedworks Corolla to ninth, ahead of the ex-WSR BMW 1 Series of Stephen Jelley.

Jake Hill finished 11th in the Trade Price Cars Audi S3, while his team-mate and former Formula 1 driver Mark Blundell rounded out the field in 30th, 1.2s adrift of the pace.

Although the session was uninterrupted, Blundell did briefly run off the track at Surtees as he battled snap oversteer, and filled up his S3's radiator with grass as he returned to the circuit.

After moving from Power Maxed Racing to Team BMR for this year, Senna Proctor - who earned a surprise victory at Brands last season in a rain-affected race - ended FP1 in 18th.

Proctor has effectively swapped places with double BTCC champion Jason Plato, who is still chasing 100 wins in the category after a trying stint at Team BMR.

In the PMR Vauxhall Astra, the same model line with which he won his 2001 crown, Plato was 19th in first practice.

His team-mate Rob Collard, who had to sit out the end of last season due to concussion, was 26th, ahead of the Motorbase Ford Focus RS of Nic Hamilton.

FP1 results

Pos Driver Team Car Gap Laps
1 Andrew Jordan WSR BMW 48.034s 22
2 Sam Tordoff AmD Tuning Honda 0.057s 30
3 Dan Cammish Team Dynamics Honda 0.078s 30
4 Chris Smiley BTC Racing Honda 0.137s 24
5 Matt Neal Team Dynamics Honda 0.142s 33
6 Ash Sutton BMR Racing Subaru 0.255s 28
7 Josh Cook BTC Racing Honda 0.263s 27
8 Rory Butcher AmD Tuning Honda 0.266s 28
9 Tom Ingram Speedworks Motorsport Toyota 0.272s 28
10 Stephen Jelley Team Parker Racing BMW 0.274s 32
11 Jake Hill Trade Price Cars Racing Audi 0.310s 30
12 Tom Oliphant WSR BMW 0.318s 26
13 Colin Turkington WSR BMW 0.342s 32
14 Adam Morgan Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 0.475s 33
15 Aiden Moffat Laser Tools Racing Mercedes 0.514s 25
16 Ollie Jackson Motorbase Performance Ford 0.515s 29
17 Tom Chilton Motorbase Performance Ford 0.584s 27
18 Matt Simpson Simpson Racing Honda 0.801s 23
19 Jason Plato Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 0.825s 29
20 Jack Goff Team Hard Volkswagen 0.829s 26
21 Bobby Thompson Team Hard Volkswagen 0.855s 24
22 Daniel Rowbottom Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 0.883s 31
23 Senna Proctor BMR Racing Subaru 0.904s 31
24 Michael Crees Team Hard Volkswagen 0.914s 25
25 Rob Smith Excelr8 Motorsport MG 0.928s 36
26 Rob Collard Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 0.973s 31
27 Nicolas Hamilton Motorbase Performance Ford 1.013s 29
28 Carl Boardley Team Hard Volkswagen 1.417s 22
29 Sam Osborne Excelr8 Motorsport MG 1.485s 35
30 Mark Blundell Trade Price Cars Racing Audi 1.501s 22


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