Jason Plato leads the way in second free practice

Chevrolet driver Jason Plato was fastest of all in the final free practice session at Brands Hatch, leading the Honda of joint championship leader Gordon Shedden.

Plato held the top spot throughout most of the session with a best time of 1:32.655, becoming the first driver to dive under the 1:33 barrier, before Shedden improved with 10 minutes to go with a time of 1:32.597 in his Honda Civic, before Plato snatched it back with five minutes to go.

Shedden ended up second, ahead of the fastest independent driver which was Paul O’Neill in the Tech-Speed Motorsport Chevrolet Cruze, with Alex MacDowall fourth fastest in the second of the works Chevrolets.

Honda’s Matt Neal ended up sixth fastest, after several set-up only laps earlier in the session with the Honda driver waiting until 30 minutes into the session to set his first timed lap.

Ollie Jackson on his BTCC debut for Triple Eight broke into the top ten with a lap of 1:33.443, whilst the other newcomer Chris Swanwick was 27th fastest in the Rob Austin Racing Audi A4. Both drivers however were warned by the stewards for exceeding the track limits, as had Paul O’Neill and Tony Gilham in the earlier session.

Qualifying is next and is scheduled to take place at 15:40 BST.