Shedden heads first practice

The 29-year-old Scotsman hit the front with three minutes of the half-hour session to go in his Honda Civic with a time of 1:25.223, which proved enough to keep him there.

Shedden's time in the damp, but steadily drying, session was 0.165 seconds quicker than two-time champion Matt Neal, who shot up the order in his Vauxhall on his final flying lap.

The session began on a damp circuit, but dried out steadily as time wore on. It looked like Jason Plato would end up on top in his diesel-powered SEAT despite only covering a handful of laps, but he was knocked down from first to third in the final few minutes.

Colin Turkington was the best BMW driver in fourth place in his Team RAC-run version, one place ahead of Mat Jackson's BMW Dealer UK-run version and two up on champion Fabrizio Giovanardi, who also had a spell at the front in his Vauxhall.

Darren Turner, Stephen Jelley (who only arrived back in the UK a few hours earlier after an overnight flight from Dubai), Tom Chilton and Matt Allison completed the top 10.

The braking zone into the Deene hairpin proved tricky as most of the field had a lock-up at some point in the session. One of the Arkas Racing Vauxhalls went off there, going straight on at the turn with three minutes to go.

John George also went off, losing the back end of his TH Honda through the long left-hander at Gracelands and running off-track as he caught the slide, while Steven Kane made it all the way into the gravel at the same corner in his Motorbase BMW.

Alan Taylor only completed one installation lap in his Robertshaw Honda after suffering a gear selection problem and spent the rest of the session in the pits.

Pos  Driver               Car        Time
 1.  Gordon Shedden       Honda      1:25.223
 2.  Matt Neal            Vauxhall   1:25.388  + 0.165
 3.  Jason Plato          SEAT       1:25.435  + 0.212
 4.  Colin Turkington     BMW        1:25.495  + 0.272
 5.  Mat Jackson          BMW        1:25.503  + 0.280
 6.  Fabrizio Giovanardi  Vauxhall   1:25.535  + 0.312
 7.  Darren Turner        SEAT       1:25.547  + 0.324
 8.  Stephen Jelley       BMW        1:25.752  + 0.529
 9.  Tom Chilton          Honda      1:25.923  + 0.700
10.  Matt Allison         Chevrolet  1:26.064  + 0.841
11.  Tom Onslow-Cole      Vauxhall   1:26.155  + 0.932
12.  Andrew Jordan        Honda      1:26.175  + 0.952
13.  Adam Jones           SEAT       1:26.246  + 1.023
14.  Mike Jordan          Honda      1:26.268  + 1.045
15.  Harry Vaulkhard      Chevrolet  1:26.361  + 1.138
16.  Rob Collard          BMW        1:26.466  + 1.243
17.  Steven Kane          BMW        1:26.678  + 1.455
18.  Jason Hughes         Honda      1:27.139  + 1.916
19.  John George          Honda      1:27.194  + 1.971
20.  Martyn Bell          Vauxhall   1:28.577  + 3.354
21.  Michael Doyle        Honda      1:28.579  + 3.356
22.  Erkut Kizilirmak     Vauxhall   1:28.946  + 3.723
23.  Chris Stockton       Lexus      1:29.441  + 4.218
24.  Stuart Oliver        Lexus      1:29.498  + 4.275
25.  Alan Taylor          Honda