Jelley fastest in Donington practice

Jelley, who lies seventh in the championship, went quickest in both the morning and afternoon sessions in his WSR BMW, setting the overall pace in 1m13.402s in the later session.

His time edged out the Tempus Sport Chevrolet of the impressive Harry Vaulkhard by just three thousandths of a second. Two-time champion James Thompson was third quickest, only four hundredths of a second off the pace in the best of the Team Dynamics Hondas.

Jason Plato was fourth, despite losing most of the first session to a crank sensor issue on his RML Chevrolet, while the Vauxhalls of Fabrizio Giovanardi and Matt Neal - the latter carrying the maximum 45kg of success ballast this weekend, were next up.

Rob Collard was the highest-placed of the drivers who failed to improve his time in the later session in seventh as the Motorbase Performance squad experimented with a variety of set-ups on his BMW.

His team-mate Jonathan Adam was only a thousandth of a second slower in eighth, and Jelley's team-mate Colin Turkington and Andrew Jordan's Vauxhall rounded out the top 10.

The Arena Fords of Tom Chilton and Alan Morrison were much improved, the straightline speed figures for both Focuses matching those of the Vauxhalls. The pair were 13th and 15th quickest respectively.

Thruxton star Paul O'Neill had his track time cut down with an off into the gravel at the Old Hairpin in session one, caused by a braking problem on his Tech-Speed Honda Integra.

The throttle on Liam McMillan's Maxtreme SEAT stuck open near the end of the session, forcing him to pull off the circuit at Coppice late on, while Nick Leason's AFM BMW was nine seconds off the pace in session one, a legacy of a broken clutch that forced him to spend the second session on the sidelines.

Dan Eaves was another to sit out session two, the engine of his Clyde Valley Racing SEAT suffering a problem on the first lap of the opening session. The team remain hopeful of having his car ready for qualifying.

Pos Driver                 Team              Time   
 1. Stephen Jelley         BMW          1m13.402s
 2. Harry Vaulkhard        Chevrolet    1m13.405s
 3. James Thompson         Honda        1m13.443s
 4. Jason Plato            Chevrolet    1m13.660s
 5. Fabrizio Giovanardi    Vauxhall     1m13.729s
 6. Matt Neal              Vauxhall     1m13.743s
 7. Rob Collard            BMW          1m13.782s
 8. Jonathan Adam          BMW          1m13.783s
 9. Colin Turkington       BMW          1m13.786s
10. Andrew Jordan          Vauxhall     1m13.827s
11. Paul O'Neill           Honda        1m14.272s
12. Adam Jones             SEAT         1m14.347s
13. Tom Chilton            Ford         1m14.561s
14. Dave Pinkney           Honda        1m14.695s
15. Alan Morrison          Ford         1m14.763s
16. Mat Jackson            Chevrolet    1m14.788s
17. John George            Honda        1m14.826s
18. Martyn Bell            Honda        1m14.893s
19. Martin Johnson         Vauxhall     1m15.388s
20. Liam McMillan          SEAT         1m15.547s
21. Nick Leason            BMW          1m22.732s
22. Dan Eaves              SEAT           no time