Plato hails breakthrough test

Plato, who lies second in the championship behind Matt Neal, was fourth quickest at the Norfolk circuit as the RML-run squad focused on improving the race pace of the Cruze.

"We made a lot of progress during the day - well, just during the morning actually, as the wet track during the afternoon made it hard to do much useful running," the 2001 Champion told AUTOSPORT.

"So far this season we've had a problem that when you attack a lap, the car gets very nervous and there's a lot of oversteer. We've needed to understand why this happens and get the car working better on the Dunlop tyres.

"RML are pretty sure they've got to the bottom of it now, and the result was that the car felt better than it has at any time I've driven it before. I was attacking less and still getting the same times, so that will work the car less and give improved tyre life. We've a fair bit to be optimistic about for the rest of the year."

Plato's Chevrolet team-mate Alex MacDowall was fastest during the morning and ended up second quickest by the end of the day.

His time, a few hundredths ahead of Plato, was in spite of an afternoon engine failure that ended his day early.

"We were very pleased to be quickest during the morning session, everything went well and the pace was good but it was very close", said MacDowall.

"The track was really wet in the afternoon so there was no point taking any risks, especially as the first session went so well, so I just practiced some starts. All in all, I was really happy with the day."