Plato ends Thruxton practice quickest

Two-time British Touring Car champion Jason Plato ends practice fastest of all after toping the timesheets ahead of Team BMW's Tom Oliphant at Thruxton.

The 96-time BTCC race winner ended a damp-dry FP1 in 13th position, but made amends during the following 40-minute running to set the fastest time aboard his Vauxhall Astra with a 1'16.414s lap.

Team BMW's Oliphant did briefly snatch the top-spot away from the Vauxhall driver late in the session, but Plato responded by setting the fastest lap of the weekend so far.

Plato rolled back the years during the previous Snetterton meeting after the 51-year old led the vast majority of the reverse grid race following a titanic battle with former Subaru team mate Ashley Sutton.

Mac Tools Racing's Adam Morgan was third quickest aboard his Mercedes A-Class, just 0.241s off the pace. Motorbase Performance's Tom Chilton followed in close company in fourth position, while BMW Pirtek Racing's Andrew Jordan completed the top-five order in fifth.

AmD Tuning's Sam Tordoff recovered from his FP1 setback, where he was forced to pull of the circuit with a wishbone failure, to set the sixth quickest time ahead of Team Toyota GB's Tom Ingram in seventh.

Carrying full ballast as the championship leader, Team BMW's Colin Turkington ended his practice running in eighth ahead of surprise top-ten runners Jack Goff and Daniel Rowbottom in ninth and tenth.