Tom Oliphant leads quiet first practice session at Silverstone
Ciceley Motorsport driver Tom Oliphant has led a close but quiet first practice at Silverstone, with the Mercedes-Benz driver leading the way through most of the session.
Eurotech Racing’s Brett Smith was the first driver under the 59 second bracket, before Oliphant put his A-Class on top with a pair of quick laps, with his time of 58.474, set just after ten minutes, holding him on top until the end of the session.
Oliphant was just 42-thousandths of a second clear of Team Hard Volkswagen driver Mike Bushell, with the HMS Racing Alfa Romeo Giulietta of Rob Austin completing the top three, 0.110 seconds behind.
Of the main championship protagonists, points leader Colin Turkington was down in 19th position in his West Surrey Racing BMW 125i M Sport, four-tenths off the pace, with his main rival Tom Ingram 12th in the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis, with Team BMR Subaru driver Ash Sutton 17th.
There were few improvements at the top of the time sheets during the last half of the session, though the times were typically close at the short 1.6-mile Silverstone National circuit, with one second covering the top 27 of 31 cars.
Free Practice 2 is next up and is scheduled for 12:05 BST (13:05 CEST).
