Jordan leads BTCC practice again

The Eurotech Racing Vauxhall Vectra driver was the only man under the 1m11s barrier, with a best of 1m10.843s set in the first half of the session. Jordan also managed several laps in the 1m11s and has yet to be beaten in a free practice session this season.

James Nash's similar TOCA-powered Triple 8 Engineering Vectra was second quickest, after recording a 1m11.140s in the closing stages. He will run 27kg of ballast this weekend as he lies third in the table.

Honda Racing's Gordon Shedden was third, but finished a second consecutive first practice session in the gravel after going off at the last chicane.

Tom Boardman continued his impressive recent pace with fourth in the Special Tuning Racing SEAT. He was just 0.002s ahead of Jeff Smith, the Eurotech Racing driver making it three Vectras in the top five.

The Arena Motorsport Ford Focus of Tom Chilton rounded out the top six, lapping a tenth slower than his 2010 pole time in the older Focus.

The fastest normally aspirated runner was Alex MacDowall's RML-run works Chevrolet Cruze, just over one second slower than Jordan, while championship leader Jason Plato was 12th with 1m12.378s.

The Next Generation Touring Cars showed improved reliability. Frank Wrathall's Dynojet Toyota Avensis was 20th, three seconds behind Jordan, and the Rob Austin Racing Audi A4 took part in its first competitive session, driven by Austin.

Pos  Driver           Team/Car              Time       Gap
 1.  Andrew Jordan    Eurotech Vauxhall     1m10.843s
 2.  James Nash       Triple 8 Vauxhall     1m11.140s  + 0.297s
 3.  Gordon Shedden   Honda                 1m11.196s  + 0.353s
 4.  Tom Boardman     Special Tuning SEAT   1m11.245s  + 0.402s
 5.  Jeff Smith       Eurotech Vauxhall     1m11.247s  + 0.404s
 6.  Tom Chilton      Arena Ford            1m11.460s  + 0.617s
 7.  Matt Neal        Honda                 1m11.753s  + 0.910s
 8.  Mat Jackson      Motorbase Ford        1m11.758s  + 0.915s
 9.  Alex MacDowall   Chevrolet             1m11.866s  + 1.023s
10.  Paul O'Neill     Tech-Speed Chevrolet  1m12.102s  + 1.259s
11.  Liam Griffin     Motorbase Ford        1m12.131s  + 1.288s
12.  Jason Plato      Chevrolet             1m12.378s  + 1.535s
13.  Rob Collard      WSR BMW               1m12.492s  + 1.649s
14.  Andy Neate       Arena Ford            1m12.634s  + 1.791s
15.  Tony Gilham      Triple 8 Vauxhall     1m12.680s  + 1.837s
16.  Dave Newsham     Geoff Steel BMW       1m13.003s  + 2.160s
17.  Tom Onslow-Cole  AmD Volkswagen        1m13.105s  + 2.262s
18.  John George      Tech-Speed Chevrolet  1m13.714s  + 2.871s
19.  Nick Foster      WSR BMW               1m13.820s  + 2.977s
20.  Frank Wrathall   Dynojet Toyota        1m13.841s  + 2.998s
21.  Rob Austin       Austin Audi           1m14.922s  + 4.079s
22.  Chris James      ES Chevrolet          1m15.241s  + 4.398s
23.  Tony Hughes      Speedworks Toyota     1m15.650s  + 4.807s