Silverstone BTCC: Vauxhall driver Plato tops both practice sessions

The Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall driver ended the second practice run with a 57.413s lap, 0.13 seconds clear of next-best runner Dan Cammish (Honda Civic Type R), with the top 27 cars all lapping within a second of the benchmark.

The Silverstone circuit has been resurfaced this year, and lap times in both morning sessions were comfortably quicker than the existing qualifying lap record - a 58.078s set by Mat Jackson in 2015.

Cammish's Team Dynamics team-mate Matt Neal was third in a session that was dominated by front-wheel drive competitors, with Tom Ingram - recovering from an earlier misfire in his Toyota Corolla - and Chris Smiley heading the BMW 330i M Sport of Tom Oliphant.

The second run was uninterrupted, but a red flag was called with 10 minutes to go in first free practice as Rory Butcher ran over a shard of debris, picking up a left-rear puncture on his AmdD Tuning Honda Civic Type R and spinning.

At the same time, the Audi S3 of Mark Blundell stopped on the approach to Luffield.

Plato's benchmark time of 57.731s in that session was some 0.3s slower than his FP2 effort. Cammish also ended FP1 in second, having lapped 0.046s shy.

The top two in the points - Colin Turkington and WSR team-mate Andrew Jordan - had complained of understeer in the 3 Series during first practice.

Running with the second-highest amount of success ballast, Jordan was a late climber to seventh behind Oliphant in second practice, with Turkington only 18th.

Jake Hill, who became a BTCC race winner last time out at Knockhill, was eighth in his Audi S3 ahead of Adam Morgan.

Both Team BMR Subaru Levorgs of Ashley Sutton and Senna Proctor were black flagged for exceeding track limits.

Sutton did end second practice 10th, ahead of Butcher and team-mate Mike Bushell - who retains the second AmD Tuning seat as Sam Tordoff has opted to miss the remainder of the season.

Plato's Vauxhall Astra stablemate Rob Collard was 13th ahead of Proctor.

Returning driver Michael Caine - who has replaced Nicolas Hamilton at Motorbase - was 27th in his Ford Focus RS.

FP1 times

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Gap	Laps
1	Jason Plato	Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall	57.731s	19
2	Dan Cammish	Team Dynamics	Honda	0.046s	17
3	Ash Sutton	BMR Racing	Subaru	0.119s	24
4	Matt Neal	Team Dynamics	Honda	0.136s	23
5	Andrew Jordan	WSR	BMW	0.152s	21
6	Tom Ingram	Speedworks Motorsport	Toyota	0.315s	16
7	Rob Collard	Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall	0.318s	24
8	Adam Morgan	Ciceley Motorsport	Mercedes	0.321s	25
9	Senna Proctor	BMR Racing	Subaru	0.345s	23
10	Tom Oliphant	WSR	BMW	0.409s	18
11	Jack Goff	Team Hard	Volkswagen	0.416s	22
12	Colin Turkington	WSR	BMW	0.462s	22
13	Stephen Jelley	Team Parker Racing	BMW	0.492s	23
14	Josh Cook	BTC Racing	Honda	0.535s	24
15	Mike Bushell	AmD Tuning	Honda	0.585s	23
16	Chris Smiley	BTC Racing	Honda	0.608s	26
17	Tom Chilton	Motorbase Performance	Ford	0.634s	21
18	Jake Hill	Trade Price Cars Racing	Audi	0.651s	22
19	Aiden Moffat	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti	0.653s	25
20	Michael Crees	Team Hard	Volkswagen	0.686s	23
21	Daniel Rowbottom	Ciceley Motorsport	Mercedes	0.711s	25
22	Rory Butcher	AmD Tuning	Honda	0.761s	18
23	Carl Boardley	Team Hard	Volkswagen	0.800s	22
24	Ollie Jackson	Motorbase Performance	Ford	0.814s	24
25	Matt Simpson	Simpson Racing	Honda	0.914s	20
26	Michael Caine	Motorbase Performance	Ford	0.955s	25
27	Bobby Thompson	Team Hard	Volkswagen	0.972s	8
28	Rob Smith	Excelr8 Motorsport	MG	1.418s	24
29	Mark Blundell	Trade Price Cars Racing	Audi	1.437s	17
30	Sam Osborne	Excelr8 Motorsport	MG	1.468s	23

FP2 times

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Gap	Laps
1	Jason Plato	Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall	57.413s	25
2	Dan Cammish	Team Dynamics	Honda	0.130s	25
3	Matt Neal	Team Dynamics	Honda	0.162s	26
4	Tom Ingram	Speedworks Motorsport	Toyota	0.226s	28
5	Chris Smiley	BTC Racing	Honda	0.237s	27
6	Tom Oliphant	WSR	BMW	0.266s	28
7	Andrew Jordan	WSR	BMW	0.278s	32
8	Jake Hill	Trade Price Cars Racing	Audi	0.350s	26
9	Adam Morgan	Ciceley Motorsport	Mercedes	0.356s	25
10	Ash Sutton	BMR Racing	Subaru	0.366s	22
11	Rory Butcher	AmD Tuning	Honda	0.366s	21
12	Mike Bushell	AmD Tuning	Honda	0.380s	25
13	Rob Collard	Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall	0.434s	28
14	Senna Proctor	BMR Racing	Subaru	0.436s	24
15	Matt Simpson	Simpson Racing	Honda	0.505s	26
16	Tom Chilton	Motorbase Performance	Ford	0.510s	22
17	Daniel Rowbottom	Ciceley Motorsport	Mercedes	0.515s	26
18	Colin Turkington	WSR	BMW	0.526s	30
19	Josh Cook	BTC Racing	Honda	0.534s	27
20	Stephen Jelley	Team Parker Racing	BMW	0.570s	32
21	Jack Goff	Team Hard	Volkswagen	0.618s	25
22	Bobby Thompson	Team Hard	Volkswagen	0.677s	21
23	Aiden Moffat	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti	0.733s	24
24	Mark Blundell	Trade Price Cars Racing	Audi	0.746s	28
25	Ollie Jackson	Motorbase Performance	Ford	0.926s	27
26	Michael Crees	Team Hard	Volkswagen	0.958s	26
27	Michael Caine	Motorbase Performance	Ford	0.976s	29
28	Carl Boardley	Team Hard	Volkswagen	1.005s	22
29	Rob Smith	Excelr8 Motorsport	MG	1.352s	27
30	Sam Osborne	Excelr8 Motorsport	MG	1.500s	21