Jordan fastest in Silverstone test

Despite only completing 39 laps of the National circuit, the Eurotech Vauxhall driver set the pace in 59.982s - around 0.3s slower than Tom Onslow-Cole's pole position time at the same track last year.

Tony Gilham's Triple 8 Vauxhall was a surprising second quickest on the timesheets, 0.246s slower than Jordan, making it two cars powered by the TOCA engine in the top two positions.

It later emerged that it was not Gilham, but his team-mate James Nash who was at the wheel when the best time was set. Nash was unable to drive his own car as there was no engine available for it.

Third quickest was Honda driver Matt Neal, despite sustaining a right-front puncture during the session, while defending champion Jason Plato was a further 0.1s behind in his Chevrolet. AUTOSPORT understands that both cars ran heavily ballasted as preparation for the season ahead.

Mat Jackson put his Motorbase Ford fifth, ahead of Tom Chilton in the best of Arena's all-new Focuses. Chevrolet's Alex MacDowall and Honda's Gordon Shedden were next up, although Shedden was limited to 25 laps during the day due to a turbo problem with his Civic.

Paul O'Neill (Tech-Speed Chevrolet) and Andy Neate (Arena Ford) completed the top 10, while 11th placed Jeff Smith completed the most laps of the day - 99 - in his Eurotech Vauxhall.

The session was red-flagged for 10 minutes at the midway point after the engine in Chris James' ES Chevrolet Lacetti blew and dumped oil on the track - on which James spun.

Tony Hughes also had an early end to his session due to power steering problems before he completed a flying lap in his Speedworks Toyota, while Tom Boardman also suffered technical issues in his Special Tuning SEAT and did not make it out until the final 20 minutes.

Tom Onslow-Cole did not take part in the test session after encountering overboost problems with his AmD Milltek Volkswagen during slow-speed photography runs in the morning, while Frank Wrathall's Dynojet Toyota was minus a gearbox and did not get out at all.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver          Team                  Time       Gap
 1.  Andrew Jordan   Eurotech Vauxhall     59.982s
 2.  Tony Gilham *   Triple 8 Vauxhall     1m00.228s  + 0.246s
 3.  Matt Neal       Honda                 1m00.251s  + 0.269s
 4.  Jason Plato     Chevrolet             1m00.367s  + 0.385s
 5.  Mat Jackson     Motorbase Ford        1m00.385s  + 0.403s
 6.  Tom Chilton     Arena Ford            1m00.394s  + 0.412s
 7.  Alex MacDowall  Chevrolet             1m00.448s  + 0.466s
 8.  Gordon Shedden  Honda                 1m00.509s  + 0.527s
 9.  Paul O'Neill    Tech-Speed Chevrolet  1m00.593s  + 0.611s
10.  Andy Neate      Arena Ford            1m00.605s  + 0.623s
11.  Jeff Smith      Eurotech Vauxhall     1m00.718s  + 0.736s
12.  Liam Griffin    Motorbase Ford        1m00.759s  + 0.777s
13.  Rob Collard     WSR BMW               1m00.766s  + 0.784s
14.  Nick Foster     WSR BMW               1m01.006s  + 1.024s
15.  Dave Newsham    Geoff Steel BMW       1m01.130s  + 1.148s
16.  John George     Tech-Speed Chevrolet  1m01.378s  + 1.396s
17.  Tom Boardman    Special Tuning SEAT   1m04.391s  + 4.409s

* Time set by James Nash in Gilham's car