Practice: Muller and Thommo on top

"I would expect to be on pole here," said Thompson. "This is a good circuit for me." The Yorkshireman had been comfortably quickest in the first of the day's two sessions, but Muller turned the tables on him in the second. "I had a diff' break at the end of the first session which isfrustrating," explained Thompson, "and the second was just a bit scrappy. I didn't get a clear lap at the end. Perhaps I showed my hand a bit too early!"

The two Vauxhall Motorsport Astra drivers were chased by the Egg Astra of Matt Neal, Triple Eight Race Engineering's top three drivers well clear of the field led by Anthony Reid in the lighter of the two works MGs and Andy Priaulx in the first of the steadily-improving Honda Civics. Warren Hughes completed the top six in his MG (carrying 42kg more than team-mate Reid).

Aaron Slight and Colin Turkington impressed in the first session and were fourth and fifth fastest respectively for the Barwell Vauxhall and Team Atomic Kitten MG squads, but they could not reproduce the form in the second. Their times were nevertheless good enough to be seventh and eighth best overall, though Turkington backed his MG, relatively gently, into the barrier on the exit of the club chicane to stop his run early.

Dan Eaves was ninth fastest, and expects better things in qualifying after setting his time on tyres which had completed 39 laps. Tim Harvey was next up, carrying the full 30kg earned by his second place on the road at Oulton Park, though a penalty dropped him to sixth in the final results.

Gavin Pyper was a spectacular fastest man in the BTC Production category on his second outing in the Team Dynamics-backed GA Motorsport Alfa 156, while James Kaye - still very short on track-time in the Synchro Motorsport Honda Civic Type-R - was a threatening second fastest.


Yvan Muller (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 1m17.177s 109.89mph
James Thompson (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 1m17.323s 109.69mph
Matt Neal (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 1m17.644s 109.23mph
Anthony Reid (MG ZS) 1m18.108s 108.58mph
Andy Priaulx (Honda Civic Type-R) 1m18.402s 108.18mph
Warren Hughes (MG ZS) 1m18.427s 108.14mph
Aaron Slight (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 1m18.503s 108.04mph
Colin Turkington (MG ZS) 1m18.509s 108.03mph
Dan Eaves (Peugeot 406 Coupe) 1m18.541s 107.98mph
Tim Harvey (Peugeot 406 Coupe) 1m18.872s 107.53mph


1 Gavin Pyper (Alfa Romeo 156) 1m22.793s 102.44mph
2 James Kaye (Honda Civic Type-R) 1m23.210s 101.93mph
3 Mark Fullalove (Peugeot 306) 1m23.589s 101.46mph