SEAT on top in practice

Turner was quickest by almost half a second during a morning session that began with a damp track that dried out by the end.

His mark of 1:11.512 though was eclipsed by Plato in the afternoon, as the 2001 champion rounded the circuit in 1:11.421 to continue the impressive testing form shown by the pair in their turbodiesel-powered Leon TDIs during testing last month.

Colin Turkington, the form man in the championship after his Croft double, was the best of the non-diesel runners in his Team RAC BMW. Turkington's ultimate pace was over four tenths of a second down on Plato's mark.

Team Halfords performed well with Gordon Shedden and Tom Chilton fourth and sixth, with the meat in the Honda Civic sandwich being provided by Tom Onslow-Cole in the best of the Vauxhalls.

Steven Kane was seventh quickest in his Motorbase BMW, ahead of Adam Jones' Team Air-Cool SEAT and Independent title rival Mat Jackson.

Jackson's time was impressive as he hit the tyre wall at Coram hard during the opening session and brought out the red flags. Thankfully there was only panel damage done to the left-rear corner of his BMW Dealer UK machine.

It was an incident-filled morning for Vauxhall duo Fabrizio Giovanardi and Matt Neal. Neal's Vectra was damaged after a coming together with a backmarker in the first session, while championship leader Giovanardi had fuel problems in session one and completed only eight laps in the second. He was 11th fastest.

Pos Driver                  Car                 Time
 1. Jason Plato             SEAT            1:11.421
 2. Darren Turner           SEAT            1:11.512
 3. Colin Turkington        BMW             1:11.805
 4. Gordon Shedden          Honda           1:11.955
 5. Tom Onslow-Cole         Vauxhall        1:11.969
 6. Tom Chilton             Honda           1:12.124
 7. Steven Kane             BMW             1:12.315
 8. Adam Jones              SEAT            1:12.339
 9. Mat Jackson             BMW             1:12.351
10. Stephen Jelley          BMW             1:12.385
11. Fabrizio Giovanardi     Vauxhall        1:12.448
12. Matt Neal               Vauxhall        1:12.529
13. Andrew Jordan           Honda           1:12.559
14. Mike Jordan             Honda           1:12.562
15. Rob Collard             BMW             1:12.598
16. Harry Vaulkhard         Chevrolet       1:12.857
17. John George             Honda           1:13.009
18. Michael Doyle           Honda           1:13.554
19. Jason Hughes            MG              1:13.598
20. Martyn Bell             Vauxhall        1:14.265
21. Erkut Kizilirmak        Vauxhall        1:14.952
22. Alan Taylor             Honda           1:15.552